The Chronicles of Six

Even though it was a bye week this week for the New York Football Giants, a lot of my football dreams came true this weekend. For starters the DeMatha Stags are playing in the WCAC Championship game this coming Saturday. I was also pleased that my fantasy football team, The Cooperators, also won this week. My overall record is 6 – 4 and I’m in the middle of the pack of the league.

Navy beat University of Delaware and Notre Dame lost to the University of Pittsburgh in the college football games this weekend. As for professional football the Dallas Cowboys lost this weekend, the Philadelphia Eagles lost this weekend, and the Washington Redskins won. Now the New York Football Giants are in third place in the NFC East standings but I feel like they’ll make the playoffs somehow.

All those topics are pretty lowbrow stuff to contemplate for a Monday, though. In keeping with the spirit of uplift let me put you on to some more thought gems. Right now I’m working on stuff that is essential to my responsibilities and it is really difficult to prioritize even though my task is an elephant in the room. Estimating the cost of large scale construction projects can be very tedious and time consuming. I’d rather jump into a big pile of clear plastic balls and scream “Yaaaaayyyy.” My boss is really trusting of my work ethic, so the responsibility is falling on me to make things happen.

In short, I have to power through.  It is times like these that I rely on the only thing that can motivate me. I’m sure that you all have those things that can get you going all at once. For me, it is understanding that if I don’t have this great job that I can’t live my great life. It is really very simple: I like nice things. In order to continue to have nice things, I require a high paying job. I also like to travel, and that is also a big motivation for me sometimes. (I’m thinking about getting hugs from my nieces and walking along the beach with them in California.) This is why I had to make the adult decision to not go anywhere, until my work is finished.

I don’t mean to scare you younger professionals or other kids out there, but the real world is really real. That is black people talk meaning that if you don’t have your shit together, you could be living hand-to-mouth or dependent on other people for your very survival. Sure a little dependence is good, because no man is an island but that doesn’t mean that people should be a constant drain on others. Nobody likes freeloaders, and society can’t afford them in the Age of Aquarius. One of the best and toughest lessons that my Great Grandfather taught me was that I should always have a job, and once more as a black man –you better be damn good at it.

I know that this was all over the place, but you should still be contemplating all this stuff instead of questioning the source anyway. (Shout outs to Theodore Roosevelt Giles!) We can’t always be thinking about football and crap like that. Even though it wasn’t some fancy explanation of some Harlem Renaissance art, it was still probably in line with the mental gymnastics necessary for you to not get stagnant. All you have to do is think about what is motivating you to do what it is that you do, but for some I would imagine that it is harder than it seems.

Advanced Ethics would be to make sure that whatever is motivating you is not a part of a process that harms or takes anything away from others. Essentially you win at life if when whatever is motivating you is also a part of a process that helps or adds to the success of others.

Marinate on that…

Notre Dame lost to University of Pittsburgh last night on national television and I smiled.  I bet that Jeff Knox was smiling too.  As I previously mentioned, I kind of love it when Notre Dame loses these days.  Charlie Weis, the current Notre Dame Head Coach, is a bit of a fat tool. 

Now I’m wondering if The Cooperators can win today.  The New York Football Giants have a bye week, so I guess I could root for the Jets.  Actually I have work to do so I probably won’t be watching much of anything on television today.  It’s good to be busy, sometimes.  I feel as though some people don’t have their lives optimized.  Folks need to exercise their brains.

With that in mind, I present to you something that will help you to refine the game.  Stop looking at music videos for a second long enough to appreciate some quality art work.  So much about our lives is reducing our intellectual capability.  Everything is said to be “better” just because it may happen to be easier, or faster.  I’m here to tell you that life in the fast lane all the time is no life at all.  My sister is famous for always saying “keep it moving,” but I’m here to put forth that folks need to slow it down sometimes.

Harlem Renaissance artist, Archibald Motley is certainly the type to help you appreciate the art by slowing you down.  I’ve always been a fan of his.  Not just because he had a fascination with the Black Bourgeoisie, but because he had a tendency to use bright colors.  When I think of how simple everything is, I am immediately drawn again into the debutants.  The smiles, the bonnets, the dresses, the shoes, the martini glasses and their lack of jewelry all was a clear indication that these ladies were of the refined sort.  Their black, distinguished butler about to serve chicken reinforces the point, but nothing does it justice like some nigga passed out on the couch. 

It seems that even in 1930, niggas with money like to sit down on couches.  Look a little deeper and you can see that Archibald Motley liked to show you some social implications that you may not have ordinarily picked up.  The first one that jumped out at me when I took the Harlem Renaissance focused course Blacks in the Arts at Howard University was the fact that the paintings on the wall all appear to be of white people.  I’m pretty sure that Motley was trying to say that despite the fact that these well-to-do black folks had clearly come a long way and were removed from the lower rung of society they idolized all things white.

Motley was also a genius for coming pretty close to the real life ratio today of successful black women to successful black men.  5:1.5 seems about right.  (Clearly the black man on the couch is winning in this game, and I’m counting the butler as being half successful for at least securing employment with black people.)  Lord knows that black women all around the country complain that there aren’t enough available, successful, black men.  Presumably, for me, this painting is taking place in the south and my only reason for inferring this is through Archibald Motley’s use of color, the architecture of the window, and the implied heat.  Motley just slowed you down by making you look for it, and he deserves a Profile in Black Genius on this site.  I’ll get to it, I promise…

Happy Sunday ya’ll.

The DeMatha Stags are going to Annapolis, Maryland to play in the WCAC Championship game at Navy – Marine Corps Memorial Stadium next Saturday because they just beat the crap out of Gonzaga 35 – 0. DeMatha is going to face Good Counsel next, for the seventh year in row because the Falcons beat McNamara on Friday 35 – 6. So the table is set again for another battle between two teams that are no strangers to the big games.

I like DeMatha’s chances. Not only did they win the previous six titles in a row, but they have really come on of late. The Stags no longer look like a team that only relies on their most prolific player, Marcus Coker. Now the balanced attack that they displayed against Gonzaga and even in the previous week against McNamara is dismantling opposition in virtually every facet of the game.

Case in point, the Stags closed the regular season with a win against the Mustangs despite not having a 100 yard rusher or a 200 yard passer in that game. The defense has been the difference and Assistant Head Coach / Defensive Coordinator Deno Campbell has done a terrific job, once again, of inspiring a herd of Stags to play great. The pass rush has come alive with Darian Cooper and DeMatha has recently rediscovered how to play lockdown defense in the secondary with the likes of Jordan Lomax.  Kyrrel Latimer has been bringing the pain with punishing hits on fools near him with the ball, anyway.

The offensive line, which has been stellar all year, has even kicked it up a notch now and any or all of the Stags’ running backs have been successful. Arie & Cyrus Kouandjie, Shane Johnson, Jacob Geiser, and the like have been pushing guys off the ball and protecting when necessary. Quarterback Daniel Tapscott hasn’t done anything stupid to hurt the Stags all year, and if the trend continues they will continue to have their way with teams.

DeMatha has had some bruises this year, but I think that they are in great shape as a team and will be ready to play next Saturday. Offensive Coordinator Chris Baucia has a lot of weapons to plan on using, including the best running back in the league in The Long Ranger. Head Coach Bill McGregor was smart enough not to rely on him too much despite his obvious talent because the entire football team is better for it. The evidence is on the field that his boys worked really hard for him this year.

Should the Stags go on to win then there will be no doubt that this football team will be considered one of the greatest to ever put on a DeMatha uniform. I know that I have written those exact same words on this site before, but it never gets old. This team has a chance to be something very special. 12 – 0 is the only acceptable standard by which they can be measured, but this DeMatha team seems to have just as much talent, excitement, skill, and desire as some of the legendary squads of the past.

The goal is out there, gentleman. If DeMatha goes out there and does something ridiculous with a score like 42 – 0 next Saturday there is a very good chance that they will be only the second DeMatha football team to finish in the top 10 in the USA Today national poll. (Depending on how other schools around the country fare, they could finish in the top five –which is something that DeMatha has never done before.) They will certainly lead the Washington Post area metropolitan rankings from wire to wire with a win next week.

In the wildest of scenarios, the DeMatha Stags have a chance at a mythical national title in football.

I’ve been waiting since 1989 to write that sentence. 

Go Stags!

DeMatha has to win big today against Gonzaga in the playoffs.  I have to get a lot of work done today, too.  I hope that Notre Dame loses to Pitt today.  I want Cory Puffett to win the Metropolitan Area Cross Country championship today because it is something that a DeMatha Stag has never done.  Some banana cake would be okay today, too. 

But do you know what would be the icing on the cookie today? 

“He said his daddy was a Mason with a major supply, and I could get them thangs as long as I buy five.” – B-Legit, D-Boy Blues

I forgot to mention that Notre Dame lost to Navy this past Saturday in football and it really put a smile on my face. I really like to see Notre Dame’s current coach lose because I believe that he is poser because he has never played football a day in his life. I don’t think that he is any better than me on my PlayStation at home and so I can’t really respect his coaching ability.  What I can respect is those kids over there attending the United States Naval Academy.  Congratulations on their big win!

I had an idea the other day to write a treatise on the genetic implications of injustice. I’m thinking about adapting it into a dissertation one day, but for now peep for it on The Chronicles of Six this winter because I’m trying to raise the bar a little more for the discourse on this site. I feel like I’ve gotten a bit regular and it is time to dust off that college degree and give real intellectuals something to nibble on.  Sometimes I go too serious and other times I go to lightheartedly.  Oh well, that’s how I roll.

DeMatha plays Gonzaga tonight at 7 PM tomorrow at 2 PM (at Bishop McNamara) for the WCAC football playoff quarterfinals. (Game time was postponed until tomorrow due to weather.) This is a major game and I expect a big DeMatha win. If we aren’t able to manage a win this evening then I’m sure that I’ll be crying in my condo all alone all weekend long. I’ll also probably be drinking myself silly if we lose because I realized the other day that I have so much liquor left over from Howard Homecoming that I have enough to serve all winter long. I know that I must be getting old because it didn’t used to be like this…

I’ve been travelling recently and I only have plans for more travel in the near future. There is a good chance that I will be in your city during this month or the next. I’m pretty much going everywhere, so if you’re checking for the brotherhood you’re likely to find me. I have a habit of turning up at the dandiest times. Some of the cities on my North American tour list include: Vancouver, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Cancun, Mexico. I don’t want to tell you where you should spend your New Years yet, but let’s just say that I won’t be in the country.

The game is on smash right now. Things are popping off and I’m still smiling. Even though today is Friday, the 13^th, I don’t let the superstitions bother me. The key is to not pay them any attention and to pray a lot, anyway. God watches over all of us, and the more that you acknowledge that fact, the more it pleases him. Some people think that it is all indifference and luck of the draw but I don’t think so, even though I respect those peoples’ opinions. I don’t even believe in luck like that. Anyway people, I hope that you are having a Happy Friday out there. Take care this weekend and all that.  I’m working on some poems and I hope to finish a series that I’m doing for Christmas soon.

Check your mailboxes and try and holler at The Bruzz, sometimes.