4/24/02

Softball: Strains of the Contemplative Athlete

Dear People,

Congratz to all on last week’s stirring 26-16 case-study in the disturbingly stark disconnect between score and merit. Yes, technically my team "lost," but the hard reality of the world is that Frank’s contingent made a full 13 of their runs in the bottom of the 6th, a frightening and completely anomalous inning in which Peter’s ability to reach home plate was suddenly blocked by "Thrower’s Mold," that short-lived yet pernicious neurological condition which clearly has no upside for pitchers. Still, no one held any grudges, and thus as both sides later feasted on succulent morsels of grilled eel head and ginger, the post-game Barbie quickly emerged as a time for fine ale, communal mirth and a general consensus that in the grand scheme of the aerobic whole, my team actually won.

Of course Peter will have to live with that inning for the rest of his days, and while I was willing to accept the physical roots of the calamity in question, I later asked him if there had been something more going on. Sure enough, tears began to well up in his curiously compelling eyeball holders, and then he gently conceded that while the mold thing may have been the immediate trigger, those 87 straight balls without a strike were in fact reflective of a sudden crisis of ontological despair. He then furtively removed a copy of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness from his trusty mauve knapsack, and whispered that I should read the first paragraph of page 147, as he had done just before the game. And so as the others continued to frolic ’round the grill, I tremulously perused the following:

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We see that human reality is a lack, and that what it lacks is a certain coincidence with itself. Concretely, each particular for-itself lacks a certain particular and concrete reality, which if the for-itself were synthetically assimilated with it, would transform the for-itself into itself. Thus the lacking arises in the process of transcendence and is determined by a return toward the existing in terms of the lacked.*

*Sartre, Jean Paulmeister. Bean and Nothingness, p. 147, exact quote. (1956).
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As you can imagine, I nearly broke down and wept when I realized the stress that Peter must have been facing on that mound, what with his overtaxed cranial lobe confronting both the challenge of his wobbly little throwing arm and the inherent sadness of transcendent lackiositude. Ultimately, though, we all know that softball does not indulge the existential imperative, and therefore, there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning….Raymond



4/26/02

Softball: Stardom

Dear People,

There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, and as of now, there is still ONE slot left.

Please bring $2 for the field, which for this week only, includes a delightful selection of butternut scones AND a rare post-game chance to try out for Sports Illustrated’s upcoming swimsuit feature, "The Boys of Unaffiliated Email-Organized Softball" …………Ray 845-7552