After realizing where much of my work happens — on the weekend — I’ve decided to permanently move my blog posts to Monday nights. I won’t have anywhere near as many reasons to postpone it, so it’s probably for the best. Plus, I like writing. It’s a great outlet for me, especially weeks like this when I have several things going on in other parts of my life. It’s good to relax a little and let the fingers hit the keys.

The hard part is coming up with the topics. I try to write 800-1,000 words, which is about 753 more than most “journalism” stories nowadays because the reading public, as little as it is becoming, doesn’t have the attention span to keep up. So, from time to time, I’m going to start mixing it up by doing some “notes” or, as you may call it, “random thoughts” from the past week instead of a full-out blog on one topic. That, too, should help keep me on track on Mondays.

JINX? WHAT JINX?
The surreal season that is the Chicago Cubs of 2016 rolls on. Since last winter, it’s been otherworldly. I was texting with a buddy in December, vividly recounting the number of years in my lifetime where I was communicating (texting, emailing, talking, drinking beers) about the Cubs in December. That total accounted to zero. Nada. It’s never happened before.

Then, this year happened. It’s like it things are going just as planned. I assume this is what it’s like when things go “just as planned” anyway. It’s never happened for us Cubs fans, so we’re really in uncharted territory.

The pitching has been consistently terrific, which is scary considering our reigning Cy Young winner is arguably our No. 3 pitcher right now. As an aside, I mentioned to my Cubs buddy back in Nebraska, when we were texting in April, that I thought this may be Lester’s year to be a stud, like even Cy Young level. If it wasn’t for another teammate (Kyle Hendricks), Lester may have a trophy directly in his sights.

And then there’s the hitting. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo are both in the MVP race, and Addison Russell, wow! Can you believe that kid was called up last year — as in he only played 142 games in his first season being in the Bigs.

The defense, too, is at all-time best levels. No, not just all-time best Cubs level. We’re talking about how they’re in the consideration, statistically, among the all-time best defense the MLB has ever seen. That is nuts, people.

HOME SWEET CHICAGO
Heading to Chicago this weekend with Sugar Mama will be pretty amazing for me. Yes, we get to see all our Nebraska friends as we’re mainly going to see the Huskers play at Northwestern on Saturday night. But in the process, we figured while we’re there we might as well catch a Cubs game. I really thought we’d be in for something special with it being the Cardinals in town and the type of year I thought we’d have as mentioned in the previous note. Hell, with only a couple weeks left in the season, it really did seem like buying a ticket to a game this week, we could be seeing a clinching game on the division. How awesome would that be?

I wouldn’t know because those bastards are so good, they clinched the division last week. Almost 10 days before we will get to see them.

That was unfathomable to me when I bought bleacher tickets back in the Spring. Now, I hope it becomes commonplace.

And just for the record, this year will be the first time in my lifetime I’ve seen the Cubs play a game when they were guaranteed to be playing in the postseason that same year. It’s all been dreams and aspirations and hopes in the past, but this time, this week, I’ll be seeing my favorite team knowing they will be playing meaningful games in October in the same season. If this is bizzaro world like on Seinfeld, then just leave the TV on and turn out the lights when you go to bed. I want to stay here forever.

ON THE SIDELINES
For anyone who knows me well, I’m fairly opinionated. Sometimes I’m probably more loudmouthed than anything, but I do have opinions and like to toss them out among my friends. One topic I haven’t tossed my hat into the ring about is Colin Kaepernick’s choice to raise awareness for something he believes needs to be talked about. It’s trickled down, as other NFL players, competitors from other professional sports, and now even high schoolers are starting to follow suit.

I get that it’s a tough one to watch at first because it’s not normal. But the simplest way to put my opinion on it would be: if you’re white, get over it. You don’t know what he or people of color are going through, how they feel. If you’re like me, and most of you reading this are, you’re privileged as fuck. Period. That’s not about status or economics. You and I have not been discriminated against like many people of color in this country, no matter how much bitching there is about what Title IX, the Civil Rights Act or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have taken away from anyone. And in this country, their voice counts just as much as yours and mine, again, period.

I think the bigger thing to focus on is if it’s actually eliciting the intended response, which is intentional conversations about real-life issues that are black and white, in the literal sense. I hope it does and has. It’s hard to tell though. We don’t have a great history as a people of listening well to all of our fellow countrymen as evidenced by the Civil War, the 1960s, and about a bajillionty other times throughout the history of the great ole U. S. of A.

One thing not hard to determine is that it takes courage to be the first one to do anything symbolic like that on such a national stage. I hope at least his effort is rewarded by people really talking about it. That right there, having an honest dialogue, is what free speech is meant to be about, not a lot of this other vitriol both sides of the debate seem to be repeatedly spewing.

I do not think what they’re doing is being unAmerican. I actually think it’s a truly American action and I’m proud to live in a country where they felt comfortable enough to do it. Go try doing that Mali, or Sudan, or North Korea, or about 30 other countries. You’d do it once, and then you wouldn’t. And no one would talk about it anymore.

I’m thankful for every person who made this country great — which it is great today despite some ridiculous national-level bloviating during this political season — whether they were a line cook in Portland, a builder on the Empire State building, a farmer in Kansas, a truck driver in west Texas, or a military member who gave the greatest sacrifice. Generation after generation has strived to show the United States does it differently, allowing the people to self govern, and freely speak their mind.

All people and every opinion can — and should — be heard. Anyone who wants to scorn and discount other people based on race, gender, sexual orientation or any other metric should have the right, as disgusting as I personally think it is, to speak their mind, just like Kaepernick does by abstaining from the Anthem. You or I may not like it, but it’s not unAmerican, and it shouldn’t be a right that we ever freely give up.