{"id":10831,"date":"2019-05-21T21:27:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T21:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10831"},"modified":"2019-05-21T21:27:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T21:27:37","slug":"what-if-happiness-hung-on-a-game-winning-free-throw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10831","title":{"rendered":"What if happiness hung on a game-winning free throw?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fb-Button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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Even Malcolm Brogdon missed a big free throw late in the last game! Then there’s Giannis and Eric Bledsoe. A Raptor or two have FT issues. So this poem spoke to me because it puts sports in a bigger perspective while acknowledging its role in elusive human happiness.<\/p>\n

“Happiness” By Lisa Zeidner<\/strong><\/p>\n

What it is
\nis the absence of pain. Nothing more.
\nOver a decade of life in the bull’s-eye
\nof the troubled cities in the Northeastern corridor
\nand I’ve never been raped,
\nnever stabbed, burglarized, or even mugged
\nthough I hate to say or even think
\nI never get colds (line italicized)
\nor hear a sportscaster brag
\nabout a basketball player’s percentage from the line<\/span><\/p>\n

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Before the foul shot that would win the game:
\nwhy wave a red flag in the bulls face
\nif the bull is God
\nin happy pastures, chewing the grass?<\/p>\n

Infinite disasters and fender bender’s lurk
\naround each corner
\nlike the black holes that claim stray socks
\nat the laundromat.
\nBest to notice happiness peripherally,<\/p>\n

The way walking in his city you take in a pretty weed
\ngrowing from a sidewalk crack
\nor a woman with slim ankles
\npassing briskly \u2013 to meet someone for a drink
\nperhaps, a man she has not seen,
\nback whole from a treasure hunt or war.<\/p>\n

You, too, have someone waiting at home
\nand for a goosebumped second you know
\nthat you are loved. That nothing,
\nat least today, has gone wrong.
\n— From Vital Signs: Contemporary American Poetry from the University Presses.<\/em> An anthology edited by Ronald Wallace, UW Press 1989
\nGO BUCKS!!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Even Malcolm Brogdon missed a big free throw late in the last game! Then there’s Giannis and Eric Bledsoe. A Raptor or two have FT issues. So this poem spoke to me because it puts sports in a bigger perspective … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-2OH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10832,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10831\/revisions\/10832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}