This is such a solid pop song that hits just right. You can loop it on repeat and still not listen to it enough. One of those brilliantly crafted tunes that happens when a producer becomes the artist.
I came across this song a few years ago now when the YouTube app on the Apple TV automatically played the next video but completely forget what it was that I watched originally that was “related” to this track. Once the sample hit and rhythm kicked in, I was instantly hooked. The bass lines through the whole song are just so excellent.
I think it’s important to point out that I’m titling this post “The Love for Sport” instead of using the phrase, “of Sport”.
WFC2 vs TFC2, April 2015
Let’s come back to that idea later.
There is something to be said about the subject of sport because I certainly have my interests and am not relatively shy to admit it.
Working the sidelines for TSN Radio at the 102nd Grey Cup, November 30, 2014
Futbol (soccer), hockey, and baseball are among the top of the list, but I also appreciate rugby, Australian football, a good tennis match, nearly any sport featured in the Olympics, and the occasional gridiron football game but get more engagement from the Canadian version than the American flavor these days.
But I literally grew up in the hills off in the distance that you see in the background of the baseball field that Kevin Costner’s character built in Field of Dreams, so you can bet I grew up playing baseball.
Dan was wanting to make videos about what life is like where he lives in Russia while using the English that he had taught himself and wanted to improve upon so he could one day travel the world.
Did you know that gas lines run above ground in Russia? Because I do now.
Dan’s stories and insights hit that spot in my heart that drives me to see more and more of the world that is as basic to the notion of driving to the end of a road just to see what’s there.
And then the invasion of Ukraine happened.
Dan’s content was a little hard to take at the beginning of the war from my perspective. It wavered along some perceived indifference to the conflict but still offered some valid insight on how their cost of living was being effected while steering clear of any viewpoints that could get them into trouble.
But one thing that is for certain is that his heart has no room for anyone or anything that goes against the notion of love and peace. On that, we could find some common ground.
And since this war has started, I’ve found other creators who offer similar insights from their various perspectives. Many of them have made their way out of Russia, some before and some after mobilization.
But I keep checking back on Dan and his family as new content appears, especially since his daughter turned one around the same time that Ukraine was invaded.
His recent content has been getting more downtrodden, and the latest (embedded at the bottom of this post) has a real sense of despair that has come over him.
He will be leaving Russia with his family. They will soon buy tickets and see where they can go, if they are not stopped at the airport. He doesn’t know. No one knows. All they can do is try.
At the end of the video, he said something that I wanted to transcribe because it’s something that I hold in my heart as well. It’s something we all need to believe.
The bright side will win.
The dark side is more easier to live in the dark side. In dark side, people can be very rich, very powerful because they have contract with major general and their life can be easier.
But in bright side, you can keep you soul. You can save your soul. And your heart.
The most expensive thing in this world is your soul.
Something I’ve often wondered was why we haven’t made more of an effort to create some sort of entity to work together on problems that face the North American continent as a whole.
@ChuckGrassley on Twitter, October 24, 2022
What most people in elected offices do is play the political game of using issues like drugs and immigration as consistent cannon fodder for their own interests. It’s a constant tactic used to maintain their position in government, stoking their constituents into believing that their simple raising of the issue amounts to some sort of solution to the problem.
Nothing is ever perfect, and things are always changing. This much I know to be true each and every day, whether it’s at work or life in general.
The one thing that I have a hard time accepting is when something goes backwards. When we give up on ways of doing things that were functioning relatively positively or just generally working pretty well due to some illogical voices of reason or lack of effort on how to make the big picture work for the sake of the greater good.
That makes it hard to convey any happiness about any freedoms or independence.
I was 12 years old, laying on the floor as the afternoon sun faded away and doing my homework for my 6th-grade reading class for the next day.
The workbook was this stapled-together, quarter ream of light green pages that consisted of various English comprehension skills. I don’t recall it being difficult but do remember having that “big kid” feeling of being proud to have homework for school the next day.
Mike was 26 and talking through a tape recorder that we had started to use to send letters back and forth with. People had been doing that for years, but this cassette was almost two weeks old and from a land that I had a tough time understanding.
My oldest brother was talking about how things were going for him in the UAE.
Some months before that, my dad and I dug into the, dated but still relevant, collection of encyclopedia books in our house that they bought some time before my memories begin. At that point, these books might have been considered to be on the edge of being outdated, but I trusted those books with my fair share of reports that spared me having to go to the library up until that point. And sure enough, those musty books had information about the United Arab Emirates, and Mike was about to be stationed there with his Air Force squadron.
He went to college with the intent of enlisting to become a pilot, and I was always in such awe with all things military.
We have a deep history of people in my family who served in almost all branches of the armed forces, but Mike was the first one in ours.
Growing up as a kid in the wanning days of the Cold War and having other kids in the neighborhood with similar history in their extended families, the threat of conflict was always there. It became a fascination.
In the backseat of the car, Dad was driving, Mom in the passenger seat, 600 WMT on the radio, and the sun well below the horizon on a cold, fall night.
We had made the odd, Tuesday night run into Cedar Rapids to hit Sam’s Club, loading up the trunk with all sorts of bulk goods. Looking back on it now, maybe it was to get their minds off of what was going on that day. Usually these trips were a weekend event.
I can still remember not being very far from leaving the outskirts of the “big city” and going through the darkness of the country. We had been listening to the results come in on the radio the whole way there, but on the way home, the special bulletin hit.
Bill Clinton had been declared the winner and would become the next president.
In that backseat, I felt fear. Staring out into the darkness, I felt dread. My mind spiraled to the point where I felt like the world was going to end. The announcement scared me to my core.
I can’t remember what my parents said to each other about it, but they weren’t happy.
And then I just remember being cold.
I think about that night quite often. I think about those times quite often.
