To everything there is a season

Is modern, urban man disconnected from the patterns of nature? Rural people had (and have) a close connection to the cyclical nature of the earth. Modern urban man in an industrialized society does not have need for these patterns and cycles (symbolized in the digital clock--instead of a meaningful, whole circle, time is fragmented and segmented) Certainly in Minnesota, where the weather experiences harsh changes and over 100 degrees of difference, we're not completely disconnected from nature's cycle.

But as a football fan, my life maintains a regular pattern that alters every aspect of my life. There's alteration from year to year, but my overall life experience seems to be settling into a predictable overall pattern. Oh, yes, mixed in there is an interest in UCLA basketball and the NBA playoffs (and the contemporary basketball elite's relationship to the basketball elite of history). And mixed into all of this is work (after 8 years of university scheduling, life takes on entirely different patterns, and academic life has its own all-consuming elements). But football is the motor that makes the pattern run.

September-December: Madness. Sheer madness. There is no other way to describe the all-consuming nature of the NFL regular season. My wife won a portable DVD player in a radio station "football widows" promotion. I don't think I'm exaggerating.

January: Weening. Playoff football is exciting, but with less teams and games, it does not take over the totality of my life.

February-May: Enjoying the world. Following sports and thinking of football, of course, but not with an all-consuming passion. This is a time for walks, for reading, for culture, for quality time to lead an authentic life.

June-July: Still enjoying the world; no school means I have time to read more of what I want. But anticipation of Fantasy Football starts to suck up more and more of existence. A separate madness of football card collecting takes hold, too.

August: Last chances for a quality life, with intense anticipation of what is to come. Football cards are at peak time. The berserk begins to re-emerge.

September-December: the Berserk madness returns.

I can't exaggerate how different my life, mind, emotions, and entire attitude changes in the cyclical pattern over this time.

Luckily, my academic/work patterns are matching my football patterns, as the next few months I will have less access to the internet (most of these blog entries are made in my office between classes) and less football content to write about, anyway. So in the summer, you'll hear less from me at this sports blog, but the content you'll miss out on would have been lousy, anyway.