ENTHUSIASTIC ENERGY FOR BETTER LIVING

Enthusiastic energy comes from a special place.

Sports fans show it at every game, match, or contest.

Literary fans show it at readings and awards.

The difference?

Sports fans scream and stomp and jump up and down and wait at exits for autographs.

Literary fans clap politely, then stand in line with their new book for a signing.

Where to these two groups meet in the middle?

Some people would say they meet at a Trump rally.

Others say they never meet.

I say that anyone with a load of over enthusiastic energy can be found in all three places.

 

Sports Fan Energy

This starts with having a team to cheer for.

It can’t be a new team you found this year, a team that embodies everything you love about sports.

Unless you’re comfortable wearing the bandwagon jumping tag, the team you cheer for needs to be a life-long team.

It helps if it’s the team your dad cheered for, or cheered against.

My dad was a Packers fan. He looked like Ray Nitschke.

All of us kids were Cowboys fans, even if we secretly liked the Packers.

The UofO Ducks wore Packer colors for the secret influence.

My fanhood rules included seeing a game, hoping my team wins, and that’s it.

No travel, no memorabilia, no fanaticism.

The closest I’v been to fanatic was making a few team masks and putting them out before a big game.

Someone my kids’ age came to watch with the group.

When the Ducks lost, the new guy stood up, walked over to my shrine, and stomped the masks.

I was torn between disappointment and shock that someone would go rouge on my shit.

It happens. People get revved up and let the action on the field of play influence them.

 

Literary Fan Enthusiasm

Readings in bookstores happen when an author brings out a new book and the store uses the occasion to sell a few.

If the author is well known with a reputation for writing good stuff, it’s a full house with books on back-order.

But, if it’s a new author the fans come from their work, family, and neighborhood.

People in the first group are strangers; the second group are friends, and friends of friends, spreading the good word.

Each group is hoping for the best results on a night out, hoping a date with a literary tone turns out better than their last date.

Either way things turn out, it’s a subdued bunch who understand the lasting results of a book happens in their minds.

No fights, no drunken proclamations about the score, or who was better.

The scoreboard tells the tale, or in this case the writer.

All the fans need to do is sharpen up enough to understand what the writer is working on.

 

Trump Rally Enthusiastic Energy

Trump draws his crowds across a wide spectrum.

From unquestionable allegiance of people who send him money, buy his merchandise, and attend the rallies in their gear, to operators  working to help them understand how much Trump loves them, this group brings the heat and passion.

Some of them have been told Trump has been blessed by God to do HIS work.

That’s what they come to hear.

Others feel Trump is the last figure holding back the American spiral into insignificance and personalize it.

If Trump fails, they are failures; if Trump loses, then they’re losers.

 

With Trump in attendance, his lawyers argued Tuesday that he was acting in his official duty as president when he challenged the 2020 election results, thus protecting him from criminal prosecution — a claim that drew some skepticism from the judges.

• “I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ allows him to violate criminal law,” said Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee.

John Sauer, a lawyer for Trump, also argued that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution unless they are first impeached and convicted by the Senate.

• “Could a president order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?” Judge Florence Pan asked.

• “He would have to be and would speedily be impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution,” Sauer responded.

 

Trump plays to his acolytes wherever he shows up.

 

Videos of his appearances routinely rack up hundreds of thousands of views across social media, particularly on non-political outlets, including popular online sports channels and fan sites.

And they are far easier and cheaper to produce than campaign rallies.

 

Enthusiastic Energy Easier And Cheaper 

When is the last time you heard something would be easier and cheaper than an alternative?

And it turned out to be harder and more expensive?

I could be a Cowboy fan because it’s easier and cheaper than changing.

Besides, who would I root for instead? I’m looking.

What’s it cost me? Time, and sitting through commercials.

It’s almost painful to watch the Cowboys cycle through coaches and quarterbacks until they settle on a losing combination that lasts forever.

From Garrett and Romo to Big Mike and Dak, it started with Danny White and The Hat.

Diehard fans keep the faith year in and year out, while I hold my breath.

 

It’s easy and cheaper for writers to produce a blog instead of a book.

Bloggers stay home and write; book authors go on sales trips, attend book festivals, and nurture their audience.

 

Trump followers don’t get anything cheaper or easier, and that’s the way they like it.

They live life like their daddy did, sticking to their guns and following their leader.

In return, their Ivy League leader praises them for being under-educated, pleads for their sympathy and money, while showing off his Lifestyle Of The Rich And Famous crib.

And they love him as much as they hated the carpetbaggers who went south after the Civil War.

 

The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. The term is now used in the United States to refer to a parachute candidate, that is, an outsider who runs for public office in an area without having lived there for more than a short time, or without having other significant community ties.

 

Easier and cheaper might be a positive for real estate tycoons, but is it the main characteristic you look for in a person whose job is stewardship for an entire nation?

When you’re used to nothing, and the process you follow to get nothing, then anything could be better?

We already know what we’ve got to lose.