Ruminations-Thanksgiving 2022

Last year I had talked a little bit about Thanksgiving in my blog post, it is my favorite American holiday. https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2021/11/ruminations-memorable-thanksgiving.html

This year I will delve a little bit more into why I have such a love of the Thanksgiving celebration.

When I first moved to the United States. We lived in Littleton, Co. My mom had no idea on what to do about the turkey, never having seen a turkey, nor ever having cooked the turkey before coming to the United States. We were invited over to our friends’ house and had the whole feast with their family, their in laws, and their friends; it was my first real taste of American roasted turkey. I can't say that I had a very deep memory of the turkey itself, although I enjoyed the dressing, the mashed potatoes, all of the fixings, and, of course, the pumpkin pie.

Years later, we decided that we would get together with some of the other expatriate Chinese people in Littleton since they were our family in Colorado. Everybody was assigned a dish and my mom volunteered to cook the turkey herself. After much teeth gnashing, she reached out to the mother-in-law of the family which hosted us on our first Thanksgiving  to learn the art of cooking a delicious moist bird. The mother-in-law marched mom through the paces, taught her how to truss up the turkey, taught her the tricks of her experience, like putting bacon on the turkey’s joints so that the skin doesn't crack and get dried up. I don’t know if the bacon did the trick, but it was delicious. If I remember correctly, it was a very popular bird.

Of course, being a gathering of Chinese ex-pats, everybody brought the traditional Chinese holiday dishes to augment the turkey itself. The dining table was groaning under the weight of dumplings, roast duck —the  backup turkey— fried rice, fishes, and all sorts of non-Thanksgiving feasting foods.

This is where I think my vision of Thanksgiving came from, even though we've had other large parties and celebrations with lots of people, this was the official picture that I had of what  large celebrations with others feel like.  Thanksgiving made an indelible impression on my mind, a very American ideal of fellowship, of friendship, of sharing meals with  people that you choose to spend time with rather than having to spend time with. This idea appealed to me deeply, even to this day.

As I got older, the nature of my parents’ traditional Thanksgiving party evolved. The nature of the people who came changed. The guests became  children  of my parents friends who were faced with the prospect of spending the scant holidays alone in a cold dorm because it was too far and too expensive to take a trip home, as well as friends who were alone for that time.

I'd like to think that our family introduced them to the American tradition of Thanksgiving. At least I hope so. It was always a big deal for my parents. It was always a time of conviviality and friendship; it was always a time of togetherness and warmth with people. That is what drew me to this particular holiday the most.

Christmas just wasn't as big of a deal in my mind, mainly because it felt like the gratitude and thankfulness so much of an afterthought. The focus is on the Christian rituals for the birth of Christ rather than celebrating the very human love of being with other humans. Thanksgiving is a celebration of people, of us, of friends, of people that we felt liked us, people that we have something in common with. It is a celebration of friendship and amity. I'm not sure how it got to be so important in my mind, but it has.

I have much to be thankful for this year. I am enjoying what I do very much, I have had many chances to indulge in my polymathic curiosity, as scattered as they are. I have had chances to interact with some very intelligent young people, to teach, to lead, and to mentor at two universities.

I am most especially thankful that I still have my mom with me, and she is healthy despite her 97 years of living.

This time of year though, given the cold weather, the early darkness, and the waning of growth, seems more poignant,  it also brings forth my own gratitude to life, to people, and to the humanity that surrounds us, because that is what we need to focus on. At this point of time of divisiveness, I feel extremely thankful and lucky.

I am especially thankful for all the people who are in my life because it is those of you who are reading this that  I am the most thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

 

Volleyball Coaching Life-Santiago Ball

Volleyball people have been trying to doodle with the traditional scoring for ages now. The volleyball playing rules today are far from Dr. William G. Morgan’s mintonette game.

We have evolved from nine players on the court to six players on the court. We have incorporated a service rotation. We have gone from sideout scoring to rally scoring. The changes have evolved over the years, many of the recent changes in the rule have been motivated by people wanting to make the game of volleyball attractive to television broadcasters, obviously to get our beloved game shown on television.

The legendary Dr. Jim Coleman had experimented with applying tennis rules to volleyball, having the teams play best two out of three sets but each set is scored like tennis: the winner has to win at least six games of 15 points with a margin of two games in each set. I saw it when the USPV was barnstorming through St. Louis during their inaugural season. I don’t remember much about the match, but it all felt kind of weird to watch because of the novelty.

I was talking to my friend Santiago Restrepo about alternative scoring for volleyball earlier this week, he said he has his solution to getting more television exposure. It seemed kind of interesting, so I will present this version of Santiago-ball for consideration. See if his confidence in his rules is justified.

·       Play best 4 out of 7 sets.

·       Each set is rally score to 15.

o   The intent here is to play the last 15 points in a 25 point set and do away with the first 10 points because nothing is on the line for the first 10 points anyways.

o   This works out to playing 2 to 3.5 sets in the regular scoring.

·       Each team plays their best rotation every set. They can play setter front row if they want, very unlikely, or they can play setter back row. Players don’t rotate, front middle stays front middle all the time, setter sets from wherever they want for every point. No overlap rule. No out of rotation calls. This is like the Chinese 9-man rules.

o   Keeps the stoppage to a minimum and keeps the best players at that position playing at that position the entire match.

·       No substitution restrictions, you can sub entire platoons every point if you want. I remember watching Lindenwood under Ron Young play against Stew McDole’s Graceland team, Stew was trying to stop the bleeding and subbed six at every stoppage, I believe that NAIA had no substitution restriction. In that case the subs  still had to be recorded in the scoresheet, which slowed the game down; whereas in Santiago ball the players just run in and out of their positions in the rotation, so that there are no added stoppage for subs.

o   The intent is to put your best attackers and defenders on the court all the time against the best attackers and defenders from the other team. The players can just: “Go at it hard.” They are also playing that one position the entire match, which should keep them in the flow.

o   If your #1 middle stinks it up, just sub her. If your leftside hammer’s shoulder is hanging on by a thread, sub her. If anyone in the back row is shanking balls, sub them.

·       There is one designated server. They serve every serve. It could be anyone playing the backrow, but if that position gets subbed out, it is still the player playing that position that serves.

·       Each team gets two timeouts each set, for 30 seconds. Minimizes stoppage time.

·       That’s it. All the other rules are the same.

Some downside is that the teams are much smaller because not much playing time to be had. Which makes it unpopular in college, club, and high schools. But we are living in Santiago world, so no one cares.

Now. I am awaiting with great antici-pation for counter arguments, counter proposals, and  alternatives.

What says you?