I had to take a blog break last week to work on a research project. I hope to be offering much more regular updates this week. Any college basketball fans out there? I am a Syracuse alum, and went to the same high school in Scranton, Pa., as the Orange’s star guard Gerry McNamara. Awfully proud of what he’s accomplished in the last few days.
Here in DC we are gearing up for baseball season. Tom Boswell, a former colleague of mine at the Post, (and an Episcopal schools alum as I recall) has written a number of wonderful baseball books, but the one I like best is Why Time Begins on Opening Day. It is a terrific title, but, strictly speaking, not correct. If you play ball and are trying to get your 49-year-old body in shape to run bases, field grounders, etc., you’ve got to start before opening day or else you will be sucking wind just running out a ground ball. So I am sucking a lot of wind these days on the treadmill and in the streets of my neighborhood so that I won’t be sucking wind come mid-April. And if you are involved in youth leagues, you’ve got to register the kids and recruit new coaches and schedule practices, etc., etc., etc.
In its way, getting ready for baseball season–my own and my kids’–deepens my sense of Lent as a season of mortification, preparation and renewal.