"Leap and the Net Will Appear"

Bob Pomerene

I once was introduced to the dictum, "Leap and the net will appear." Seemed very Buddhist. Apparently, it originated with John Burroughs, an American naturalist. Then, as life happened, I took some leaps, and there was not always a net. I learned then to get vertical, straighten and streamline my body, so I would enter the water below with the least possible impact and injury. It was not always water below, however; sometimes it was hard earth or concrete. And so I learned that sometimes leaping can lead to a huge and dramatic impact that changes one's life or even brings to an end the life one has known. I also learned it is useful to know how to fly.

The above is related in unspoken ways to what made Luis Tiant such a masterful baseball pitcher. 

 ·  · Share · Wednesday, October 12 at 10:28pm

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  Samuel Pomerene likes this.
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    Kim Suga Bob, I could talk about El Tiante's career all night. I'm FB friends with his son and have tried to convince him to let me lead the campaign toward the Veteran's Committee for his acceptence into the HOF.
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 10:40pm ·  ·  1 personReply
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    Samuel Pomerene Nice Soog, I hope you can get it done. My Pops has always been a big fan ( as well as myself ) of LOUIE...LOUIE....LOUIE...
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 10:42pm ·  ·  1 personReply
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    Eric Pomerene Adapt....
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 10:45pm ·  ·  2 peopleReply
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    Samuel Pomerene Adapt, adjust and.......airborne
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 10:48pm · Reply
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    Bob Pomerene Yes, adapt .... I saw Tiant pitch against the Orioles at Fenway on September 16, 1975. Tight pennant race, Orioles and Red Sox both still in the hunt. It was one the most compelling pitching performance I have ever seen. Jim Palmer pitched for the Orioles. The Red Sox had a 2-0 lead from the 4th inning on. Both pitchers pitched complete games. Tiant pitched all 9 innings, 8 strike outs, O runs. Palmer pitched a great game too, also 8 strikeouts, but 2 home runs (to Carlton Fisk and Rico Petrocelli).
    
    I was sitting in the centerfield bleachers in what used to be my favorite spot, where you could effectively be looking over a RHP's right shoulder and down to the catcher. Tiant was totally masterful, bringing all his pitches from his 3 different arm positions, mixing up speeds and just setting up the hitters with one pitch after another, strike on the inside edge of the plate, then in and up, backing the batter off, then low outside corner, strike two. Complete control of location and tempo, have never seen better.
    
    That was the game that the LOUIE chant started. I was there and I started it (with the help of many beers, I am sure). At some point, maybe top of 7th or top of 8th, Luis got another batter leaning and swinging and missing, I was just overwhelmed by it all, I stood up and began shouting, roaring, at the top of my lungs, "LOUIE, LOUIE, LOUIE." People around me were staring, I began to feel foolish and sat down. Then Tiant did it again with the next batter, and I was back up, yelling "LOUIE, LOUIE, LOUIE." This time a few people near me in the bleachers also got up and started chanting. Then we all sat down. Then, another batter, and the chant spread through the bleachers. By the end of the game, the whole stadium was joining in. The LOUIE chant, of course, went on to be a signature of the rest of that season, into the playoffs and on through that great 7-game World Series with Cincinnati.
    
    True story.
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 11:07pm ·  ·  2 peopleReply
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    Samuel Pomerene Where is the love button??
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 11:10pm ·  ·  1 personReply
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    Bob Pomerene ‎@Samuel Pomerene: :D
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 11:11pm · Reply
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    Eric Pomerene Soog,meet Bob.....
    

    Wednesday, October 12 at 11:12pm ·  ·  1 personReply
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    Bethe Burke wow that was beautiful. you threw me with the baseball connection, lol.... that reminds me - I have a"Baseball" tarot set among my collection. the 11th step standing in the outfield...field of dreams?
    

    Friday, October 14 at 2:53pm ·  ·  1 personReply

Run from the "scary" - or engage, dance with it?

Sometimes when something scary is coming at you, the right thing to do is run, and sometimes it's to engage - dance with it. It is important whether most of the "scary" is coming from inside or from outside yourself. The devil of it is knowing what is what. Often we don't know clearly until after the fact. Complex mixtures of inner and outer produce uncertainty, hesitation, on & off feelings and behavior. All we can do is the best we can each day, and consciously be trying to do the next right thing and avoid cruelty.

Like manure, we do not throw our neuroses away, but we spread them on our garden; they become part of our richness.

"In Buddhism, we express our willingness to be realistic through the practice of meditation. Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquility, nor is it attempting to become a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes. We provide space by the simple discipline of doing nothing. Actually, doing nothing is very difficult. At first, we must begin by approximating doing nothing, and gradually our practice will develop. So meditation is a way of churning out the neuroses of mind and using them as a part of our practice. Like manure, we do not throw our neuroses away, but we spread them on our garden; they become part of our richness."

-Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
 [click on name to go to website'

Miscellany

September 11, 2011

I still don't have an answer to my question whether there is such a thing as unrequited hate.

The sound of one hand clapping is almost impossible to hear.
October 24, 2011: I did say "almost." Listen.

July 19, 2011

A politician is somebody who campaigns hard for the job, claiming he can do it better, but then when he's in office and things don't go as promised, says it's the other guy's fault.

Achieving "balance" in life is chancy and often short-lived -- like the see-saw at the perfect moment of balance when neither side is moving; like the carnival "Loop" ride hanging you motionless upside down for a deathly long instant.

The hardest thing about writing is actually writing.

Passion co-existing with equanimity is a challenge for me. Good news. Just a few years ago I didn't know or care about this. Today I can make it a goal and get better at it.

I have known believers in God whose lack of imagination was shown in their belief (i.e., belief in a "small" God), and I have known atheists whose lack of imagination was revealed in their unwillingness or inability to conceive even dimly of a vast unimaginable power in creation beyond their own ability to perceive and understand. In fact, I have to say that these two groups of people have more in common than not.

Once, out under the stars on a sweet dark night with someone special, a moonless clear night in the country, stars breathtakingly brilliant, Milky Way galaxy vivid, soft not-too-warm-just-right breeze, no doubt an ineffable romantic moment -- the absurd hyena of a thought came to me, "Almost as beautiful as Las Vegas at night." I kept my mouth shut. I did not laugh out loud. That time I did not spoil the moment.

The Moment | Book by Douglas Kennedy - Simon & Schuster

 

REVIEW - independent.co.uk

I just finished reading this book, was greatly surprised and moved by it. A "love of a lifetime" story written by a male author, told by a male first person narrator, which is unusual in itself. Not at all a potboiler romance, not at all sappy, but a deep and sensitive telling full of psychological insight, complexity and sublety, along with respect for the ambiguities, the uncertainties, the glory and the sorrow of "true" love, of love and happiness in the grasp of two people, and then gone, but never reprised and never forgotten. The main action took place in Cold War Berlin before the Wall came down, and is recalled and relived 26 years later after the female protagonist has died, and old journals come to light. There is a lot of good observation and storytelling about life in divided Berlin during the last years of the Cold War, but it surrounds and informs the central story of the love between the two main characters. I recommend this book for anyone who is intrigued by the idea of a great love story in a le Carré setting.