Deez

OK, so we're getting to the time of year where we're about to fall back, which means darkness, which, for me, means being very intentional about getting light in my life.  I haven't bought a light box, but I'd actually consider it.  

It is, to me, no coincidence that the winter holidays that fall in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate light, and with light - we have to have it, even if we have to manufacture it.

I have a friend who lives in Australia, and I asked him about celebrating Halloween in spring, Easter in fall, and Christmas in summer.  He says that Halloween isn't especially big there - not like here, and really, trick or treating is relatively new down under.  Easter just is what it is - and as for Christmas - they beach it and barbecue.  I don't blame them.  I'd do that if I lived somewhere warm at the holidays.

One year, we went to Jamaica for Christmas.  My parents and I flew there Christmas Eve, my sister and her husband arrived the day after Christmas.  On Christmas day, I say on the beach and had my hair braided by a woman named Harper - "Like Harper Valley PTA", she told me.

Let the record state that I do not look good with braids.  I have too much face for that - and I was relatively thin(ner) back then.  I was 23.  Hard to believe it's been nearly 24 years because I remember it way too clearly for it to have been that long ago.

And yet, here we are.  

Speaking of things that happened a lifetime ago... the Atlanta Braves won the World Series last night.  It was amazing - they last won 26 years ago.  I know this because their first win was the day after my 21st birthday.  A Saturday.  And I was dealing with an epic hangover.  I had gotten really loaded the previous night.  Walked all over downtown Athens quaffing shots like I was on a mission.  I then regurgited said shots into the bushes off the side of my sorority house porch, in the rain.  The next morning, I tried to remove my eye makeup - only to realize that what I had thought was mascara was in fact tiny burst blood vessels from strenuous vomiting.  Classy.  

But it was not the kind of thing you forget, and that's the point here.

Now, I will weigh in, briefly, on the Native American situation with the logo, chant, and name of my home ball team.

They need to change it.  We have no real tie to it.  We inherited it from Milwaukee, who got it from Boston.  Which is so Atlanta, really - we're a city of transplants.  But the fact remains, Georgia was home to a massive number of Cherokee who were driven from their land because white folks thought Jesus wanted them to have it.  It was a real asshole move on our part.

So, yes,  the Braves identity needs to go.  We did, to our credit, get rid of Chief Knockahoma as a mascot some time ago.  We need to do better.

You cannot make these things up - they retired him in the late 1980s.

Of course, in Georgia... it's going to take some time.

Hopefully, they will win their next World Series under a new name.  And it won't take 26 years to do it.

ae