You Wearing Maroon and Orange Today?

-

Graduation, 1984



Homecoming, 1987



The family at a football game, 1994




Chasing after the next generation of Hokies on the Drillfield, circa 2000. That's my nephew, Austin, whose tutor was "Stack," the resident advisor killed in the dorm shooting.



I may have had fewer degrees of separation than many; still, I've been overwhelmed by the outpouring. It's been much appreciated since I wasn’t prepared for the toll the Virginia Tech tragedy took on me.

Monday, like everyone, I just watched as the bad news got worse. Tuesday, the tears kept coming; I had to stop watching TV. Wednesday, I don’t really remember except I sat down after dinner and next thing I knew it was an hour past my bedtime and the dirty dishes still sat on a darkened countertop. Somehow the remote kept coming back to CNN and MSNBC despite the fingers being given strict orders to stick with TBS sitcoms. When I slept, I slept hard and through alarms. And when I finally woke, the day felt dreamlike as an impenetrable sadness continued its monopoly on my mood. I don’t have a job that tolerates much downtime, which I must have taken liberally to be this far behind. I just don’t know what filled the voids besides some welcomed calls, comments and e-mails from current and old friends.

By Thursday morning, I started to wonder if I might need help sifting through the deck for that Get out of Jail card. But it turns out I just needed some sushi and Survivor.

I get down occasionally, but not like this. Having my waking hours ruled by a brief biochemical alteration, and not free will, is unfamiliar territory. I’m still partially coated in all the dirt that this week’s dredged up, but I suspect more will drop off during Sunday’s half marathon. The weekend rain will help, too. This place could use a good cleanse after the week everyone’s been through.

Today we are all part of Hokie Nation, embracing the grief one last time before we start looking forward again to the world we briefly left. So I salute you with a greeting one Tech alum often gives to another (from a cheer normally reserved only for us old-time Gobblers): Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi.

Popular posts from this blog

I Leave You With This

-
Image
There's this social media post some guy put up on Instagram. I almost scrolled past it, but I'm glad I didn't. It asked what question we should ask ourselves when we die. In retrospect, ChatGPT's response was basically pulling from Eastern philosophy, but, still, I couldn't stop thinking about it in the hours and days since I first heard it. Here's a partial transcript I cribbed using -- what else? -- AI. Some guy set up the prompt, which was long and convoluted. The following picks it up from there.  Some guy : I'm assuming most people would ask, 'Where am I going? What's next?' Something like that. Is that a good question?  ChatGPT : No, because they don't matter. Some guy : W hy don't they matter?  ChatGPT : If there's a heaven or hell or some next phase, you're likely already heading there. Asking won't change your destination. It's a wasted question.  Some guy : That's a good point. Um, what about 'Did I do en...
Read more

What's Your Slavery Footprint?

-
I just came across an app that immediately intrigued me because it brings awareness to something way too often overlooked in this country. It's called The Slavery Footprint , and I found out about it this morning courtesy of this post . Living in California, and traveling regularly through the Central Valley where a bulk of everyone's U.S.-bred fruits and nuts are produced, I became keenly aware of how poorly farmhands are treated in this country. I even blogged about it several years ago . Some of us tend to feel morally superior because of the foods and lifestyle choices we make. After taking this "test," perhaps that piety will recede a bit. After you take it, you can share your score if you wish. Personally, I'm embarrassed by mine.
Read more

Do Mom and Dad Make You Run?

-
I know of a lot of middle-aged running friends who are motivated by their parents to run. Their mother or father was in poor health for many years and it ultimately cost them their lives (or at least a higher quality of it), and so one reason they initially put on a pair of running shoes was to avoid the same fate. However, that's not the sort of parental connection outlined in a provacative post about the link between exercise and genetics in this morning's Daily Beast. It reflects a couple of scientific studies that show we may be genetically encoded to favor workouts. That means some of us will never enjoy exercising like others, nor will our children. If this is true, then those of us modeling good behaviors by eating well and exercising in moderation may merely be passing along the endorphin baton to those with our "exercise gene." And that might also explain why some parents who push their kids into sports end up disappointed that their child never "takes...
Read more