Unlike Any Other Business In The United

Unlike Any Other Business In The United States, Sports Must Preserve An Illusion Of Perfect Innocence. The Mounting Of This Illusion Defines The Purpose And Accounts For The Immense Wealth Of American Sports. It Is The Ceremony Of Innocence That The Fans Pay To See - Not The Game Or The Match Or The Bout, But The Ritual Portrayal Of A World In Which Time Stops And All Hope Remains Plausible, In Which Everybody Present Can Recover The Blameless Expectations Of A Child, Where The Forces Of Light Always Triumph Over The Powers Of Darkness.

The Future Turns Out To Be Something That You Make Instead Of Find. It Isn't Waiting For Your Arrival, Either With An Arrest Warrant Or A Band, Nor Is It Any Further Away Than The Next Sentence, The Next Best Guess, The Next Sketch For The Painting Of A Life Portrait That Might Become A Masterpiece. The Future Is An Empty Canvas Or A Blank Sheet Of Paper, And If You Have The Courage Of Your Own Thought And Your Own Observation, You Can Make Of It What You Will.

When We Talk About The Foreign, The Question Becomes One Of Us Versus Them. But In The End, Is One Just The Opposite Side Of The Other?

The National Distrust Of The Contemplative Temperament Arises Less From An Innate Philistinism Than From A Suspicion Of Anything That Cannot Be Counted, Stuffed, Framed Or Mounted Over The Fireplace In The Den.

Rumors And Reports Of Man's Relation With Animals Are The World's Oldest News Stories, Headlined In The Stars Of The Zodiac, Posted On The Walls Of Prehistoric Caves, Inscribed In The Languages Of Egyptian Myth, Greek Philosophy, Hindu Religion, Christian Art, Our Own Dna. Belonging Within The Circle Of Mankind's Intimate Acquaintance ... Constant Albeit Speechless Companions, They Supplied Energies Fit To Be Harnessed Or Roasted.