{"id":194,"date":"2003-10-15T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2003-10-15T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/2003\/10\/courage_friends.html"},"modified":"2003-10-15T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2003-10-15T10:32:00","slug":"courage_friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/2003\/10\/15\/courage_friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage, friends!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a rough night<\/a> last night. Phineas<\/a> kept wailing, “What’s happening? I was having such a good time just 5 minutes ago!” <\/p>\n

Daria, at 5-3, shouted, “Somebody turn this shit off and put on the game!”<\/p>\n

And poor Annie. It was her birthday. Instead of the biggest Chicago birthday party ever in the history of all time, she got a surrealist masterpiece of a nightmare.<\/p>\n

Yea verily, it blew goats.<\/p>\n

But I still believe. Tonight, we shall prevail. Kerry Wood, one of the best pitchers in the whole wide world (ok, the<\/b> best), will see us safely home. Repeatedly. And shut out those bastard Marlins.<\/p>\n

To the guy whose insurmountable craving for a souvenir set this whole nightmare off (the asshole in the grey sweatshirt, not just the one who’s getting all the press): good luck, bud. Some of us did see your face.<\/strike><\/p>\n

[updated 1:30 pm] To those of you who are wondering about Mr. Grabby, the Sun Times has the dirt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So today, whilst off on some strange surfing tangent, I came across this, which made me think of our beloved Cubs, and my beloved Red Wings, and the strength of my fabulous friends and family, and every other underdog that’s fought to come out on top:<\/p>\n

At the next vacancy for God, if I am elected,
I shall forgive last the delicately wounded who,
having been slugged no harder than anyone else,
never got up again, neither to fight back,
nor to finger their jaws in painful admiration.<\/p>\n

They who are wholly broken, and they in whom mercy is understanding,
I shall embrace at once and lead to pillows in heaven.
But they who are the meek by trade, baiting the best of their betters with extortions of a mock-helplessness,
I shall take last to love, and never wholly.<\/p>\n

Let them all in Heaven – I abolish Hell –
but let it be read over them as they enter:
"Beware the calculations of the meek, who gambled nothing
gave nothing, and could never receive enough." <\/p>\n

[John Ciardi]<\/p>\n

Many thanks to the fine folk at Constantly Risking Absurdity<\/a> for posting this piece where I could stumble across it. If you like poetry, it’s a hell of a site.<\/p>\n

Now let’s get out there and finish it up, boys. Go Cubs!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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