[guest post by Dana]

[Ed. I have no interest in the sport of football, nor do I have any opinion on various teams, rankings, etc. That is not the focus of this post.]

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement at age 29 from professional football, citing injuries, unrelenting pain and constant rehab as motivating his decision:

Luck called it a hard decision — “the hardest of my life,” he said — but it was also a clear one. He is only 29 years old, but football has wrecked his body and stolen his joy. Over the past four years, his injuries have been brutal and relentless: shoulder sprain, torn cartilage in the ribs, partially torn abdomen, lacerated kidney, concussion, torn labrum in his right shoulder and now the calf and ankle problem that hasn’t healed.

Luck has missed a season and a half of playing time because of injuries. He awoke one morning after a game and noticed blood in his urine. He lost the entire 2017 season because of a difficult recovery from shoulder surgery…

He was back, and so was Indianapolis, which felt it had put together a Super Bowl-caliber roster for this season. Then another injury made Luck reassess everything.

“For the last four years or so, I’ve been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab — injury, pain rehab — and it’s been unceasing, unrelenting, both in-season and offseason,” Luck said Saturday night. “And I felt stuck in it, and the only way I see out is to no longer play football. It’s taken my joy of this game away.”

[…]

“I’ve been stuck in this process,” Luck said. “I haven’t been able to live the life I want to live. It’s taken the joy out of this game. After 2016 when I played in pain and wasn’t regularly able to practice, I made a vow I wouldn’t go down that path again. The only way forward is to remove myself from this cycle. I came to the proverbial fork in the road and made a vow if I ever did again, I would choose me, in a sense.”

Responding to Luck’s decision was Fox Sports Radio commentator Doug Gottlieb:

Retiring cause rehabbing is “too hard” is the most millennial thing ever #AndrewLuck

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) August 25, 2019

Wow. How the hell anyone can judge Luck for making a decision that might help break the vicious cycle of injury, unrelenting pain and rehab that he is currently stuck in? What kind of ghoul does one have to be to imply that someone is weak because they are saying enough is enough because they want to their body to be fully operational? Shaming someone for taking steps toward restoring their good health and repairing their damaged body is a terrible thing to do. And here’s the thing: we’re not talking about a situation where people’s very survival depend on Luck remaining in the NFL. For Christsake, let’s keep it in perspective: We’re talking about football. And if someone like Gottlieb thinks that Luck is obligated to voluntarily suffer for his entertainment, then Gottlieb reveals what a truly selfish bastard he is. My guess is that Gottlieb hasn’t suffered chronic injury and pain in his life, nor has he had to endure demanding, years-long rehab work. Most people won’t endure what Luck has. But there are many people who suffer unrelenting physical pain, and face the arduous task of continual rehab work. And not as a result of their own career-making decisions either. But if you asked them whether they would jump at any opportunity to be free of their suffering, do you really think they’re going to say “no”? Of course not. I have known that kind of consuming pain from similar injuries, and have known the endlessly exhausting work of physical rehab. Enduring that, day in and day out, is not an easy life. Especially in Luck’s case, where there there would be no end in sight to it if he continued to play professional football. And so my hat is off to Luck and his decision. He’s got an option to break the vicious cycle. He’d be a fool not to choose it. May God bring him his longed-for relief, and may he eventually not have to struggle to remember what it was like to live without injury and pain and rehab because he is once again experiencing life without it. There is the before, and there is the after, but being stuck in the middle of that long, dark tunnel is devastating. Thankfully, he’s now headed toward the light at the end of it. He made the smart decision.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

It is the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s piece is a motet and something of a pastiche: “Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt” (Shout and cheer, shout and cheer for the Lord, all the world).

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 13:10-17:

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Shout and cheer, shout and cheer for the Lord, all the world,
Serve the Lord with joy!

A word about the motet. Its provenance is debated, with the “Anh.” (“Anhang” or “Appendix”) indicating that the work is not considered to have been composed (at least entirely) by him. It appears that the first movement was the work of Telemann, adapted by Bach. The second movement is thought to derive from Bach and the third from Telemann. Think of it as a collaboration between two great composers — like when Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page got together to form The Firm. Or something.

Since we’re already expanding the field to include Telemann, why don’t we throw in some Mendelssohn as well: his motet of the same name:

I think Mendelssohn is one of the great underrated composers of all times.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

[guest post by Dana]

It’s 2019, and she really said it:

A city council candidate in Michigan shocked a public forum when she said she wants to keep her community white “as much as possible.”

Jean Cramer made the comment Thursday in response to a question about diversity in Marysville, a city in St. Clair County, 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Detroit. The Times Herald in Port Huron said she’s one of five candidates running for three council seats in November.

More than 90% of Marysville’s 9,700-person population is white.

Cramer responded when the moderator asked candidates if Marysville should do more to attract foreign-born residents, who are boosting populations in some Great Lakes states.

“Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” she replied. “White. Seriously. In other words, no foreign-born, no foreign people.”

“Seriously, in other words, no foreign-born, no foreign people because of what, in our past, we’ve experienced it’s better to have, simply American-born. Put it that way and no foreigners. No.”

Marysville’s Mayor Pro Tem, Kathy Hayman, whose son-in-law is black and grandchildren biracial, was stunned by Cramer’s comments:

“I don’t even know that I can talk yet, I’m so upset and shocked. My father was a hundred percent Syrian, and they owned the Lynwood Bar. It was a grocery store at that time. So basically, what you’ve said is that my father and his family had no business to be in this community.”

After the forum, when asked to explain her comments, Cramer mocked God by rendering judgment on Hayman and her family, and misrepresented the Christian faith with this spectacular line of bullshit:

“What Kathy Hayman doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong. (A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not.”

Marysville mayor, Dan Damman, used the words “vile” and “jaw-dropping” to describe Cramer’s comments:

“Mrs. Cramer’s disturbing and disgusting ideology is flatly rejected by me, our entire City Council, all of city administration, and our employees. The candidate forum was to be a mechanism to learn about the candidates and their viewpoints, thus empowering our electorate to make an informed decision before voting. The only positive result from this clear expression of overt and unapologetic racism is that this candidate’s views were put on display before our voters go the polls in November.”

All in all, I’d say the candidate forum was a great success in accomplishing what it set out to do: Marysville residents know precisely who Jean Cramer is, and where she stands. Vote accordingly.

Cramer doubled down on her comments the next day:

Asked if she understood why [her comments] might upset her neighbors, she said: “If there is the biracial marriage in the family, yes.”

“Because those people don’t know the other side of it,” she said. “For whatever reason, I’ve heard, they love each other, whatever, but there’s also such a thing as remaining single. People don’t necessarily have to get married, and, if they love somebody, love them single. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Cramer also told ABC affiliate WXYX-TV, that:

… she is not racist… that she would not have a problem with black people moving into Marysville… as long as they were committed to keeping their properties looking nice.

And more about those “foreigners”:

Cramer then proceeded to say that she doesn’t want foreigners who are pushy moving to Marysville. She said they should “go back” and fix the problems in their country instead of coming to America.

Further:

“As far as I know, as long as we’ve been here, Marysville has been a white community, a white city,” she said. “… If we have seen a black person here and there, whatever, we’re not bothered by it. I’m not bothered by it.”

While Mayor Damman, local leaders, and Kevin Watkins, president of the Port Huron chapter of the NAACP, have called for her to withdraw from the city council race, Cramer said she has no plans to back out.

Anyway, this comment by Cramer reminds me of someone:

Cramer then proceeded to say that she doesn’t want foreigners who are pushy moving to Marysville. She said they should “go back” and fix the problems in their country instead of coming to America.

Oh yeah, this guy:

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana