Something on my mind
What’s going on? - Joko Beck
In these stressful times it’s important to notice what’s going on in your interior life. I studied psychology back in the 70s, when the field was at about the level of medieval surgery, but one lesson has stood the test of time: do NOT underestimate the subconscious. As the popular television show Ted Lasso demonstrates, we have both demons and angels within us. When one or the other clears its throat, we should take heed.
So I took special notice of what happened last night. After work I sat down and turned on the computer. Time to relax. Perhaps listen to some music? Yes. What music? Nothing normal, something…different:
A storied rock and roll anthem, a paean to persistent, preternatural power, and the ultimate futility of our efforts to resist it.
Now, said my mind - Riggins.
Ah. That song has always reminded me of something that happened in the NFL back in ‘83. After the Steelers dynasty, the center of the football world shifted to the west coast and stayed there for half a decade. The Raiders won the 1981 Super Bowl, the 49ers won in 1982. The Raiders would win again in 1984, and the 49ers again in 1985. These teams played modern football featuring brilliantly schemed offenses with deadly passing. It seemed that the old kind of football - four yards and a cloud of dust - was going the way of the dinosaur.
It surely was, but in January 1983 one dinosaur still roamed the earth. His name was John Riggins, and his straight-ahead running style pulverized Washington’s opponents as the team marched through the postseason. Playing on fresh legs -there were only nine regular season games because of the strike that year - he led Washington on a rampage through Detroit (28 rushes, 4.8 yards per attempt), Minnesota (37, 5.0), and Dallas (36, 3.9).
They met the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII, and their storied “Killer B’s” Defense. Riggins ran at them again and again, with Washington basically running just three plays for him: 40 Gut, 50 Gut, and 70 Chip. By the fourth quarter, both teams knew all three in intimate detail. But the Dolphins were getting the better part of the fight - as the clock wound down, they led 17-13. In the fourth quarter Washington had the ball at midfield. They ran the ball on 1st down, 2nd down, 3rd down. And then, on fourth-and-one, another 70 Chip to Riggins, and the greatest moment in the history of Washington football:
Years later Riggins would say It was “well…you could say, figuratively, it was orgasmic.”
My mind dialed up one more - a fictionalized racing scene from the 2019 film Ford vs. Ferrari. It’s 1966 and Ken Miles is driving the Ford GT40 at Daytona. For most of the 24-hour race he’s been limited to 6,000 rpm for fear of blowing the engine. As the race nears its end, it looks as if a different Ford will win the race, and with it the right to lead the company’s efforts at Le Mans. And then his boss, Carroll Shelby, gives him the green light:
A pack of lies, of course - Ken Miles won the actual race going away. But the music, the fantastic racing footage, the thrill of breaking through after maddening, frustrating, unrewarded effort…
It’s almost as if my mind is trying to tell me something. Or am I overthinking this? As Sigmund Freud might have said, “sometimes a long-odds triumph after tenacious effort is just a long-odds triumph after tenacious effort.”
The I-Ching speaks to this. The 64th and final hexagram is often translated as “Before Completion”. The arc of the book concludes with the contending forces nearly balanced, but with a thumb gently applied to the cosmic scale. There may be fire on the lake and many dangers, but the superior man wins out:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
No remorse.
The light of the superior man is true.
Good fortune.
But before we arrive at this, it says, we are like a fox on the ice, scampering…very carefully…until that fortunate moment when we can leap forward.