Well, our beloved Yanks went down to defeat on Saturday afternoon, put down in overtime by Ghana, poor defense and missed opportunities. At least we don’t have to face the prospect of hoisting that tacky World Cup posted about on Friday. Feeling bummed, I went with my girlfriend to an Atlanta Braves game on Sunday, looking for some good old American baseball to bring me back to sporting life; no go, as we went down 10-4 against the Detroit Tigers. Oh me, Oh life!
This is a long way to go to let you know I thought about Field of Dreams a lot this weekend, one of my favorite movies, and how it’s themes of hope, progress, history, family bond and baseball all mix perfectly, and headily, into an important and enduring way of looking at America. Terence Mann (AKA J.D. Salinger):
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
(Basis will now break for you to go out and see this movie, finish crying, and come back.)
In the end, it is not defeat that matters, but the possibility of victory. The possibility of perfection is what will bring us back to the diamond, will bring us back to the World Cup in four years’ time, and what will bring us back to ourselves, and our country. It’s not July 4th, but it was an interesting weekend to be a sporting patriot. What does this have to do with art and design? It also made me think of perhaps my favorite Hendrix jam. Played loud and early, 1969, the alarm clock for what was for three days the the third largest city in New York State, 400,00 kids sleeping in the fields; The Star Spangled Banner played as commentary; as a blackboard erased and rebuilt, erased and rebuilt, and going on to perfection.
Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner
