HELLO!

On Tuesday I picked up this shirt at a local thrift store. It reminded me of a sketch I saw on Sesame Street, the “Banana in the ear” routine featuring Ernie and Bert. Here are all three parts to the drama:

Part 1: Bert tries to tell Ernie that he has a banana in his ear, but Ernie can't hear him because he has a banana in his ear.

Part 2: Ernie reveals the banana in his ear keeps alligators away. He uses Bert's denial of alligators on Sesame Street as proof his method works.

Part 3: Ernie, having seen an alligator in the previous segment, thinks he'll need a new banana, figuring the one he has doesn't work anymore.

It is one minute long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwsmqZLCKPE

I watch a lot of sports, and I used to watch a lot more when I was young. Typically, I watched the NHL, Major League Baseball (MLB) and the NFL. I also watched a lot of boxing, downhill skiing, tennis, golf, and any other competitions covered by ABC’s Wide World of Sports. In terms of superstition, the only professional athletes I recall having good luck rituals on a consistent basis were baseball players. The extremes MLB players would go, with their bats, their gloves, even wearing lucky underwear, was intense. For those whose memories go back as far as mine, the only example I could think of in the NHL was Toronto Maple Leaf coach Red Kelly, who in 1976, in a playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers came up this plan: “The Leafs lost the first two games in Philadelphia. Kelly needed something to energize his team. He chose Pyramid Power. Andra (his wife) had read about the power of pyramids.   Prior to Game 3 at Maple Leaf Gardens, without the knowledge of his players, Kelly placed five plastic pyramids under the Leafs bench. Toronto outshot the Flyers 52 to 28 and beat Philadelphia 5-4.”

In a previous church I served the pipe organ needed to be restored. The choir pews had to be removed so the organ had easy access. I noted under each pew was so much chewing gum you could not see the wood. I asked the organist/choir director and he told me, “I told the choir, if the sermon was long and dull, take a stick of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, keep chewing and pray for the sermon to end. I didn’t know what they did with the gum afterward but now I know.” He told me this occurred many years ago. But he might have said that to spare my feelings. Most of us have rituals we practice, they are not rational, they likely make little sense to others, but they somehow work for us. When Kim gets sick, she tells me, “I don’t want to hear about your remedy again, I know you will tell me to go for a long and fast walk, to drink lots of water, have a hot shower and take a nap, but this will not cure my sickness”. Do you have a ritual unique to you, that helps you cope, be calm, stay focused? Peace, Kevin