Team, Home, Faith in the Storm

I often remember when I had been living away from home for many years, going to graduate school in Oklahoma and Tennessee and teaching in Kentucky and Missouri, coming home and seeing people wearing the garb of my local college athletic rivals. My heart filled with emotion when I saw people wearing their crimson and blue Jayhawk sweatshirts and even the purple and white Wildcat garb. KU was my alma mater, though I seldom watched football and didn't understand it at all, they were still my team, but seeing the locals wearing KU or K-State colors, either one, it didn't matter. I was home. Tonight, KU beat K-State in Manhattan where they often lose. But tonight, they won, with a final score of 86-62. It's a crazy thing about loyalty to your team. Of course, I was excited when the Vols won their football games when I lived in Tennessee. Of course, I wanted Oklahoma State to beat OU when I was living in Stillwater, but KU versus K-State? That becomes personal. What's kind of funny is where I went to Junior High (Capper Junior High, named after Arthur Capper) our fight song was the KU fight song adapted to our junior high ("For I'm a Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay Jayhawk up at Lawrence on the Kaw" became "For I'm a Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay Jayhawk from dear Capper Junior High." And when I went to Topeka West our colors were purple and white like K-State. The junior high mascot was Jayhawks too but the high school mascot was not Wildcats, it was Chargers. AI Overview of Arthur Capper: "Arthur Capper was an American politician from Kansas. He was the 20th governor of Kansas from 1915 to 1919 and a United States senator from 1919 to 1949. He also owned a radio station, and was the publisher of a newspaper, the Topeka Daily Capital. Capper Publications was a major 20th-century American media empire founded by Arthur Capper in Topeka, Kansas, becoming the largest publishing house west of the Mississippi by the 1920s. It included the Topeka Daily Capital, Capper's Weekly (later Capper's Farmer), and Household Magazine. The company, which also owned radio station WIBW, specialized in agricultural and rural-focused content." Loyalty to a school or a team has a lot of clout, a lot of power. When I was in junior high, I didn't know who Arthur Capper was, but I have learned since, and another funny thing, the building has been changed to an alternative high school. I subbed there once or twice and under the stairwell there was still a picture of Arthur Capper and a little tribute to him. I doubt if the kids that go there now have much interest in that but it's interesting to me. He was an influential person and an honorable person. Kind of got off the subject of KU there but thinking about Arthur Capper and all he did in his life makes me think about what home means, and it means more to me now than it did for many years when I was living in 10 different states. I guess I was looking for my true home. I suppose I didn't appreciate team loyalty when I was in junior high or high school, or even college, really. I never was into athletics. But lately I have learned to love watching KU basketball, and I have actually watched the Chiefs play football a few times. These are things that a lot of people may take for granted. But I wish that sense of loyalty would be translated into patriotism instead of all the division we are currently experiencing. It's disturbing, unhealthy and frightening, but as a person of faith I can only continue to trust God because I still believe "In God We Trust." Times are very turbulent right now, but we need to be together as Americans. I hope all this trouble leads us as Americans to find our common purpose and stop fighting one another. We have been under a Winter Storm Warning and experiencing severe weather, not expected to let up until noon tomorrow. It's been snowing off and on since early last evening. It is now four degrees above zero with a wind chill of minus two. Not too bad compared to what's happening further north and further west even in my state. In Northeast Kansas 4-8 inches of snow have been reported and a couple more are expected late tonight. I put tape around my front door and did not set foot outside all day. I simply stayed inside, drank tea and coffee, ate leftovers and listened to my heater kick on every 30 minutes running up my electric bill through the roof. Oh, well, soon it will be over and fairly temperate weather will return for the rest of the year, for which I am extremely grateful. Tomorrow is my late sister's birthday. I wish she was still here but she took herself away from us. I miss her. I don't have much else to add to anything this evening. I just believe in being content with food and clothing as the Good Book says. In this world only one thing is guaranteed: tribulation, which, if we let it, can bring us to peace with God. Living one day at a time, to him, through him and for him. God bless you and God bless America.