We can’t change the present or the future. We can only change the past, and we do it all the time.
That’s Bob Dylan from his recent (print edition only) interview in Rolling Stone. That quote floored me, and further still I read it in an ESPN/Grantland Fantasy Football column by Chuck Klosterman. What?! What is going on?
When you’re a kid nothing matters more than games and when you’re older nothing matters more than understanding your childhood. Ergo, games are a big deal, which is why people later turn life into a game — one that can be fun, incredibly boring or even dangerous. But as Dylan says we control less about the outcome of a game than we do the interpretation of that event afterward.
This Saturday morning on KAXE’s “Between You and Me” the topic is “Games Afield.” They’ll be talking about unusual games, sports and activities off the beaten path. I’ll be sharing a story about the genesis of a game some friends and I created a few years ago, during the slivovitz era of my life, inspired by graffiti painted on the wall of an Iron Range ice rink warming shack. I think you’ll enjoy it, if only for the words I intend to find out if you can say on the radio.
You can hear “Between You and Me” from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE on the Iron Range, 90.5 KBXE Bemidji, and 105.5 Brainerd. You may stream the recording or access the archives at www.kaxe.org. My essay is often shared in the first 20 minutes or so, depending on calls. I’ll also be running an extended version of this piece as my Sunday column, so stay tuned for that.
And in continuing my audio series sharing past essays I’ve done, today I offer one I wrote last summer for the show on Title IX in sports. This goes back to another childhood story about a girl on our little league team who wanted to be a pitcher.
If the player doesn’t work for you (and I’m finding that it often doesn’t in Firefox), download the file directly here.
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