Freddogg Off The Chain

There are saintly people in the world who always make the right moral decisions, people who do not envy or lust or wish their successful neighbor would step off the curb and roll an ankle. I have always perceived these individuals as having ice water not real blood flowing through their veins. There is a state of spiritual nirvana where the truly good people live. I have met a few of them and none are out to save anybody.
So many years ago as a track coach I pulled my mile relay team from the last event of a dual track meet we were leading by 100 points and put a team of much lesser talent on the track. A great race ensued, runner for runner battling, and we lost by a lean at the tape. The winning team took a victory lap and my A team wasn’t happy with me.
“Put something back into the sport you took so much out of,”I told them.
‘Fredman is fucked up,” one of them said.
“Create the illusion of class even if you have none,”I told them.
“Here he goes with his dry dumb-assed lessons of life,”said another.
“Class and sportsmanship are a reflection of self-assuredness and confidence and reflect an inner peace. All the great competitors understand that life is about processes not outcomes.”
“What the hell is he talking about now”?
I recently experienced several adults, successful and accomplished and in a position to teach these same lessons, who came up empty basically getting mad at an athletic director who offered a turf field for practice because a northeast four day storm had washed out the field of its rival.
Small minded, caddy, get off of my turf mentality and quite frankly it absolutely blew my fucking mind. I can run this issue up the community flag pole-I am the newspaper guy- prompting a public discussion where no illusion of class will prevail.
“Always come down on the side of kids and grandparents,” my grandmother said. “Too many selfish bastards in the middle!”