some Vanderbilt and Alabama alumnus lore and musings on college football, the oldest profession, boomerang karma and yin/yang disturbances

some Vanderbilt and Alabama alumnus lore and musings on college football, the oldest profession, boomerang karma and yin/yang disturbances

I celebrated 83rd birthday today by wearing that T-Shirt The Witch gave me a few days ago.

I graduated from Vanderbilt in May 1965, and that fall I enrolled at the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa.

I was tired of watching the Vanderbilt football get beat most of the time, and I was an Alabama football fan since Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant came to Alabama, and I had rooted for Alabama when it played Vanderbilt. 

When I watched Vanderbilt’s fabulous transfer quarterback Diego Pavia and his team lead the entire game and beat Alabama straight up last year in Nashville, I felt the better team had won.

I thought Name Image and Likeness (NIL) and the instant transfer portal had greatly leveled the playing field in college football, and had turned college football into a giant house of ill repute in which most of the better players are for sale if the price is right.

I thought Vanderbilt competes academically with schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, and thus a Vanderbilt diploma is worth far more to Vanderbilt football players in after football job markets than, say, an Alabama diploma is worth to Alabama football players.

This year, I thought Pavia and his football team might give Alabama’s football team all that wanted and then some.

Leading up to the Vanderbilt-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa this past Saturday, I was astounded to read various news and social media reports that Pavia was saying, if Vanderbilt plays its game, it won’t be close. 

I wondered what got into Pavia to taunt the Alabama football team?  

In his day, Alabama’s G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) Coach Nick Saban would have taken his quarterback to the woodshed for saying something like that in public. Coach Saban would have called it rat poison. 

In his day, Coach Bryant and his quarterback would have a prayer meeting with Jesus.

As I watched the first half of Vanderbilt-Alabama game this past Saturday on my TV, I felt Pavia and his team were the better team even Alabama scored a long touchdown pass on the last play of the half to tie the game at 14-14. 

I stopped watching the game and went outside to work in The Witch’s and my backyard garden, and when I came back inside and looked at the TV, I saw Vanderbilt had not scored in the second half and Alabama was ahead with only few minutes to play. 

I watched Alabama’s offense give up the ball on downs and punt, and I watched Alabama’s defense stifle Pavia and his offense and get the ball back, and I watched Alabama run out the clock and its starting running back Jam Miller made a long touchdown run as time ran out. 

I told The Witch, who had graced me a few months back by becoming my wife, that Lady Karma paid Diego Pavia and his team a visit in Tuscaloosa this past Saturday.

I told The Witch that what Pavia did to set up that karma has a lot to do with what is wrong in America today. 

Way too much testosterone, not nearly enough estrogen (metaphor). 

Or if you prefer, way too much yang, not nearly enough yin. resulting in:

I now can’t help but wonder if it was The Witch’s since childhood spirit protector and guide, Asherah, the wife of God in ancient Israelite lore, helped Pavia fumble near the Alabama goal line and lose the ball in the first half, and in the second half Asherah helped Pavia throw an interception in Alabama territory, and Asheral helped Pavia continue to not play up to his usually high level in the closing minutes of that game?

I now wonder if Asherah gave me this poem which wrote itself into my diary right before a Key West Poetry Guild monthly reading began in 2017?

“Bi Polar” 

the world’s favorite

mood disorder

the cause of all

human ails,

including wars,

if the demons aren’t counted 

bi polar disorder,

the destruction of the

south pole,

the feminine,

the north pole,

he ain’t been

right in the head

since she’s been gone

I wonder if Asherah gave me that poem, because she had arranged for one of my blog posts to show up in The Witch’s computer in early 2010, and The Witch read that post and knew she and I were soulmates and some day we would be together.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com