Nice guys don’t always finish last. Sometimes, even with good motives, they don’t finish at all. Case in point.
My grandson tried out for a hockey team, but didn’t make it. He was disappointed. He told his mother that he played wing and center, and kept shifting positions because another kid couldn’t decide if he wanted to play either spot.
His mom said, “Well, you need to be more selfish and say, ‘Hey, I am playing center!’” My grandson looked at his mom and said, “Mom, I would rather be a good person than a good hockey player.”
I thought, “You know, if we all took time to consider others, our world would be a much better place.”
I am all for having care and consideration for others, but, with the best of intentions, Mom chose an inappropriate word – ‘selfish.’ It carries the unfortunate, additional connotation of, all for me, and no-one but me. It’s nice to be nice, but she should have said, assertive.
One can be assertive, without being an asshole. If you don’t tell others what you want, you’ll seldom get it, and just end up going home to sit in a big, hot, soapy tub of disappointment. Progress is made by those who want, and who communicate to others what they want. You can be both a good person, and a good hockey player. If you don’t want strive, perhaps you should try for a spot in the figure-skating revue, or join the chess club.
Reading this Op/Ed letter, I could just imagine the, “After you, Alphonse. No, no, you go first, my dear Gaston.” game being played. It is possible that the other, good person, lad was waiting for this one to make a choice, and he would gladly accept whichever position was left. Hockey is a competitive sport. This youth didn’t even have the drive to attain the position he wanted. The coach wisely saw that he didn’t have the ambition and motivation necessary to win games for the team, and cut him.
Baaa…. I cannot tell a lie. I sheepishly insist that you return soon, probably for another helping of Fibbing Friday.
Archon's Den 
If you don’t want conflict, join the chess club?!? Obviously, sir. you’ve never been in (on?) a chess club. I sat in on one in high school, and after about an hour, decided chess just wasn’t for me, especially with that level of competition. I chose something far calmer and safer. I started learning sword fighting. 😯
The only thing MORE competitive than either debate or chess is trying to get somewhere on a Chicago freeway during rush hour (more like rush 2.5 hours!). I remember a friend challenging me to a car race, my pathetic 8-year-old Vega against his monster-V8 Lincoln from about 20 years ago. I absolutely TROUNCED him, thanks to the fact that my Vega fit into holes in traffic his bumper couldn’t squeeze into. Early lessons in offensive driving! 😀 (I love fast small cars. I’ve driven Camaros and such, but the only big beast I ever really loved was the Buick Grand National. A full-size coupe, with a turbo -6 that could keep up with a ‘Vette! Those things were TERRIFYING! I’ll stick with my Z-24, thanks. )
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I figured you’d catch that. It’s a war-game. Checkmate comes from shah maht – which means, The King is dead. 😳
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The only kings in wargames I played were King Tiger tanks – technically Royal Tiger, or Tiger II, but called “king” by Allied press. Though I once had a neat little game with kings, that refought the Battle of Pelennor (I think that’s the right spelling) Field outside Minas Tirith near the end of the War of the Ring. That was a cool game – very accurate and realistic (as much as a fantasy novel-based game can be), but it disappeared in one of the moves. I’m hoping I can still find it. Might even be worth something!
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Hey, JE. I can’t remember where you are in OH, but I hope you are nowhere near that nasty and dangerous train derailment. No Bueno.
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Nope, that happened east (and a bit south) of here. Nothing stinking up the air here until spring, when the farmers start hauling chicken … fertiliser to their farms. There’s a reason I keep the windows tightly sealed around here!
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Good deal. I think about the water, too. Sometimes I think too much. Hope you stay safe.
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I can sympathize with the folks who have wells in the area. We’re on a well that is VERY shallow. Then again, with all the iron and what looks suspiciously like used oil in our tap water, we get water from a machine at the wife’s Wal-Mart. As do many people around here!
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I don’t know. I played Chess as a kid and didn’t suck. Didn’t get into the competitive thing. When I was about 21, a dude set up a chessboard and invited anyone to play. I was out of practice and he won every game. We started dating and played. When it became apparent I was going to win a match, he flung the pieces around the room. I never played chess again. Chess has its scandal too.
https://frontofficesports.com/how-a-huge-cheating-scandal-altered-the-chess-world/#:~:text=In%20September%2C%20world%20chess%20champion,forces%20in%20the%20chess%20world.
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Playing chess is based on remembering, and implementing, tens of thousands of combinations of moves. Since I, essentially, have no memory, I gave it a pass. 😦
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Driving in Chicago is still something else.
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Now, that’s a war game, and a killer sport! 😳
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Yes, on both counts.
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Ever hear of a game called “Car Wars”? It’s supposed to be set in a post-apocalyptic world where you hang weapons on cars and duel it out. I always maintained that somebody on the design staff had experienced Chicago traffic! I drove in a lot of cities, but never found one to rival Chicago.
The one thing I’ll always remember was when I worked (and lived during the week) in Springfield, and drove home to a Chicago burb over the weekend. Going up I-55, everything was calm, with folks passing on the left, driving on the right, and everbody oh-so nice and polite. Then I’d hit the Joliet exit, and HOLY S**T! Cars going sideways, people doing 30 in the left lane and 90 in the right, no lane change signals, just horns and middle fingers! Same thing going to Springfield – chaos until past Joliet, then calm and control again. Wild!
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I haven’t heard of Car Wars. I don’t dispute it. My southern point is 80/94 E when going home. It is fcking awful. I put my car in a centerish lane until I have to merge left. Awful. I’m from a Northern Suburb.
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If you don’t mind saying, which suburb? I’m from Addison (Addison/Wood Dale/Bensenville/Itasca area, about halfway between Addison and Wood Dale), originally from Niles just a couple streets east of the Golf Mill shopping centre. I worked for a while on the north side of Lake/Cook Road, and drove through Elk Grove, Wheeling, and various other points north. And of course Schaumburg, the home of the great Autoduelling arena … I mean, shopping centre Woodfield Mall. 🙂
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While I can be competitive playing cards, trivia or Scrabble, I never had the killer instinct required for sports. But if there’s a margarita drinking contest? I will annihilate the competition.
😉
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If I could save time in a bottle…. 😀
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So how about a special post about our great loss today, the lovely and talented Raquel Welch? Please don’t make me compose a whole post, I’m still fighting that dang cold.
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If you want, you can cover her movie acting, and I’ll try to add something (as a commment) on her song-and-dance career (which she always wanted but never really got). PLEASE mention the movie “Mother, Juggs, And Speed”. It’s a classic everyone should know about!
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Your grandson is to be lauded. He is kind, tolerant and think of others first. You and his folks brought him up well. 👍🥰💪
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I like to think that my grandson is kind, tolerant, and thinks of others, but he is also more decisive, and capable of expressing his needs and wants.
The portion in blue was a letter to the local newspaper from another grandfather, but thanx. 😀
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I’m in the Arlington Heights/Buffalo Grove/Wheeling Area. LCR is about 1/2 mile north. I will sometimes take the Wheeling train in, and othertimes go to Northbrook or Deerfield train if needed. Lol, I call Wodfield Mall, Woodfield Hell.
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Okay, a little NW of where I hung out growing up. I want to say we did some parades in Arlington Heights during my re-enacting period. I took the Milwaukee Road West line out of Wood Dale to get downtown, though occasionally I’d grab the Northwestern, which stopped south of us (Villa Park, I think?) when I headed over to the Oakbrook … Hyatt? Hilton? Whatever – to do our British sci-fi cons.
Where downtown, roughly? I was in 225 W Randolph, though I came in through the old 208/212 Washington part of Illinois Bell HQ. That building is now luxury apartments – hope they overhauled the HVAC system big time, that area (at least on the 7th floor) was an oven in summer and colder than Siberia in winter. Then again, you did get to see it snowing up sometimes, which is fun. 😀
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