Out of the Cornfield--Thoreau Was a Red Sox Fan

Okay, this won't make the top ten of any anarchist site. It is too sentimental, and as an anarchist, one must must eschew sentimentalism.

Bullshit.

One of the problems most "movements" in life and politics have, is that they take themselves TOO seriously, and miss the big picture.

Why chase a cause if chasing the cause is all there is?

"Field of Dreams."

Short synopsis? Corn farmer hears voices telling him "If you build it, they will come."

His wife and banker and brother thought he was nuts. But he built the ball diamond on the edge of the cornfield, and the great pros of the past walked out of the corn and played ball in front of him. He dreamed his dream, however impossible it seemed, and it happened despite those who said it could never be.

Thoreau would have understood--Red Sox fans have forever waited to beat the Yankees--to bring the "real stuff" of baseball back to to the forefront.

They might never do it, but they have the one thing that nothing can ever buy . . .

The dream of what could be.

If you haven't seen the movie, then go rent it. If you love baseball, as do I, it will tear at your heart. But if you love life and freedom and what could be . . . well--just be sure you have a new box of Kleenex handy. And remember that closing scene--in the dark of night--all those lights.

The movie, for all of its "baseball-ness"--is not about baseball. It is about being free.

I admit from the outset that the movie creates strong emotional ties between my long deceased step-father and me. Yeah--so what? I loved the man, and he, in a way only a man could, loved me. And we both loved baseball--hells bells--I still have that stupid hat he wore to my Babe Ruth League and high school games, hollering "Way to go, Goober!" at any strikeout I managed to make happen.

From the time I was 5, all I wanted to do was play major league baseball. He knew that, and he encouraged me every step of the (possible) way. I have played against ex-professionals, and they told me I could have done the bigs, but I knew better, as did my Old Man. There was another path upon which I was to walk, and while my love for baseball (and the Red Sox--ask Stephen King!) will never go away, my mind turns to other matters almost automatically.

I found it amusing that Costner took James Earl Jones to Fenway for a dog and a beer. Ex-hippies might have understood the VW bus and all of that, but the dog and a beer, and the freeze-frame on the center-field screen . . . Fenway Franks--ya gotta have one! Catch a game a Fenway once, too. Nothing like it! Like the movie . . . ya just gotta be there.

Priceless.

What good is "anarchy" in its truest sense, if playing catch with the kid in the backyard and dreaming of playing in the World Series is not a dream worth the while?

The whole point of freedom is to be free to enjoy being free, and if that is not on the list of options, then what is really left?

I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who knows we must oppose the entire mentality of governmentalism, but I disagree with those who refuse to be happy along the way.

When Costner played catch with his Dad--his Dad as a younger man come out of the cornfield--what more pristine situation could there be? At one point Costner said "Dad" . . . and his younger father gave a knowing glance (that scene alone is worth the price of the movie!)

That is what freedom is all about--to discover from whence one cometh, and to revel in the relative few opportunities life presents to one to do so.

Yeah--sentimental as it gets. But you know what? So what?

If there isn't a goal to being a free man, then being free doesn't mean squat.

Ya just gotta be there!