an existence largely shaped by dark matter
Posted: March 29th, 2016 | Tags: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Walton watching the Portland Trail Blazers play in 1975, his foot immobilized by an injury. Bettman/Getty Images. Courtesy of the New York Times.
interesting article about bill walton, the basketball player and announcer, who i grew up listening to:
I had come to San Diego to speak with Walton about his life: the magic rainbows interweaving over the bottomless, flaming abyss. He tells that story in his new book, the amazingly subtitled “Back From the Dead: Searching for the Sound, Shining the Light and Throwing It Down.” For an athlete’s biography, the book is surprisingly fatalistic: It begins with Walton on the brink of suicide and ends with many of his friends dying. It suggests an existence largely shaped by dark matter — all the things that didn’t happen, that never coalesced, that went missing.
and his miraculous growth spurt!
At 14, Walton blew out his knee in a pickup game. It was during his recovery from that injury, while he lay in bed for three months, that Walton hit his improbable growth spurt: He got in bed at 6-foot-1 and got out at 6-foot-7½. This is one of the many ways in which Walton’s basketball life seems mythological: The injury and the growth, the gift and the curse, were one.
[…] it’s memorial day weekend, and saturday i stayed in bed all day, and it was TRULY AWESOME. i watched mad max 2, slept a bunch, watched basketball (a disappointing game, tbh, but right now they’re all disappointing?). sunday, however, was one of those sloth days, i washed my hair but otherwise got nothing done while at the same time dreading all i had to do. was resistant to doing things and yet stressed by not doing them. classique combo. at the end of the day, i went to ross’s performance, which was v cool, then i walked the dogs to vance’s, and he came over for ice cream, so ultimately a mellow win. but not terribly productive. today was my DOING THINGS day and so far yes — did all my work i had to do (revise a flyer, draft and send an email, catch up on emails); write back to assisted living folks; write back to moving helpers; order bedding for mom; send update to mom’s friends*; now i’m doing laundry and about to make banana bread, and we MIGHT go see furiosa in alpine (but weirdly not excited this minute? even though i am excited about seeing it, but maybe not TODAY). anyway my main dumb constant question is: IS life complicated? i think it’s complicated but also that may be why i struggle so much and have constant migraines. how do i just zen out and not absorb all this dumb BS. also RIP sweet bill walton. […]