Sports is heartbreak; Shattering Camelot; Crying on public transit

3 Things this week and a poem

Happy Canada Day to all you wonderful Canadian readers (and Happy Birthday, mom!). Here’s to an amazing fourth of July to all my American friends (and let’s just forget about Thursday’s debate).

If you’re in another part of the world, I’d love to know if you have a national holiday in July. What are you celebrating?

No matter where you’re reading this, I’m so grateful you’re spending some of your weekend with Things I Wrote Down.

1. Sports is heartbreak

Almost, but not quite Edmonton.

I travelled this week and after a five hour flight delay, my plane took off just as the Oilers lost Game 7. I really felt that loss at 30k feet.

The Edmonton Journal has a great article summarizing the series, the journey, the team’s mentality and the history of the storied club: Oilers Game 7 loss is neither Cup nor bust.

It’s worth a read.

2. Shattering Camelot

Hours in airports, shuttles and planes allowed me to consume long form content this week. I got hooked into this episode of the Megyn Kelly Show about the new book by Maureen Callahan: Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed.

As the book will, the interview shatters the myth of Camelot and explores the carnage the Kennedy men—from JFK, Bobby, and Ted—left in the lives of women.

The women were young, some were famous, and disposable the author explains. It all was shocking (but not surprising). Of a generation that didn't experience the events first-hand, I've only watched films that mostly glamorize JFK and RFK (like Emilio Estavez’s ensemble film Bobby, which is wonderful, or the Kevin Costner vehicle 13 Days about the Cuban missile crisis, which is so well made). They portray men that are lions in the political world. But that picture was glossy and incomplete. If lions, this reveals them as predators too.

The interview also explores the risk-taking behaviour of the world's once-most-eligible bachelor, JFK Jr, and some troubling patterns of current presidential candidate RFK Jr., with some real shockers about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It's a compelling, sobering interview that on the surface may just sound like gossip, but the author posits uncovers inconvenient facts buried by the family and media enablers.

It’s a fascinating podcast listen.

3. Crying on public transit

My apologies to the bus of tourists on that night trip from Malaysia to Singapore way back in the 2000s, in which I cried for the better part of an hour listening to a Chris Rice album. And, apologies to my college soccer team for the genuine tears I shed watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure—what can I say? Their history presentation just got to me.

Because I reserve crying in public to modes of public transportation alone, this AGT video from Irish singer songwriter did the trick. It cued the public transit tears on my trip home from the States this week and I feel cleansed.

Maybe you will too.

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A poem

The hyperlinked trail I traveled this week seems to be about honesty. Facing the facts of our own mythologies, coming back down to earth, looking hard truths and loss in the face and giving an account.

This all stirred up a memory of a poem I wrote, for a yet-published series of narrative poems about two people parting ways after a long journey together. I read one of these here for subscribers awhile back. This one summons feelings for me. I hope you enjoy it and continue to seek truth the that sets you free.

I told you honestly

I told you honestly
we can’t go on like this
you pinched your tear ducts
between your thumb and
index finger
stood there for awhile
quietly
then you turned
walked away
your back to me
hands in the air
hands that used to touch me

my favourite photograph
is of you
it still hangs from my bathroom mirror
you’re sitting on a stump
out where your dad was cutting firewood
hands folded in your lap like an Amish woman
that half grin
pretending to be serious

sometimes I talk to you in that picture
remember the days
when you’d walk into the bathroom
turn down the toilet seat
fold your hands across your lap
and talk to me while I showered

I always felt so vulnerable when you did that
so comfortable
when you sat there and watched me

I miss those mornings
I can’t go on like this


©️ 2024 Andrew Kooman