Skip to main content

Take This

Some people call it karma.  Some just note the frequency with which it occurs.  Some never notice it at all, while others can predict it.
It has other names, but I just like to think of it as the universe evening things up.  Not revenge, but an equaling out in the form of something big.  Something life-changing.  Something well deserved.
It has probably happened to you.  I know a few accomplishments or random acts, or perhaps just surprising consequences that have drifted into and out of my life fit the bill.

That's why when California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby last weekend, it was much more than just a victory for the little guy.  Sure, all those elements were there.  An $8,000. horse drawing away from the best 3-year-olds in the country to win the first leg of the Triple Crown is more than enough to put a week-long smile on the face of those who don't live in the fast lane.  But what I'm talking about here is 77 year old trainer Art Sherman.

This is a guy who has been on the racetrack all his life.  His roots go deep into both the Derby and the sport.  As an 18 year old exercise rider, Sherman accompanied the great Swaps to Churchill Downs sleeping in a rail car with the former Derby winner.  After his riding days, he married his sweetheart, raised his family (two sons who are both in the game) and put up modest statistics. For decades. I'd see him early in the mornings on the Bay Meadows or Golden Gate Fields backstretch, joking with his compatriots, or exercise riders, or owners or jockeys.  He played by the rules.  He did the work, went through the highest highs and lowest lows of the sport as everyone does.
There were  few good horses along the way, but mostly claiming horses and an occasional stakes winner.  This horse, a California bred, comes once in a lifetime.  That time is now and that's where the karma comes in.  It's as if some great force in the universe rises up and says, Art, you lived a righteous life thus far.  You set a good example.  Better still, you kept it all in perspective.  Here, take this horse and go have fun.  You deserve this kind of reward.
Schmaltzy...I know.  But terribly satisfying.
One more thing.  This is horse racing, so I'd better not speak too loudly or too soon.  One thing is for certain.  The Derby is over and the results have been declared Official.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical.  This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair.  I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself.  At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office.  But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter.  So I fidget.  Then I begin a tour of myself.  Scars are tattoos.  I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12.  Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife.  The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life.  50 years later ...

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party.  Sex, religion and politics, in any order.  Those are the topics of choice.  We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news.  Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas.  The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places.  Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message?  Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing?  Probably both.  I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt.  Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...