1. Having arrived home early in the evening on Saturday, I had no problem (with the help of hungry Luna and Copper) rising and shining before six o'clock this morning to watch the men's final tennis match at Wimbledon featuring Novak Djokovic and Mateo Berrettini.
In the first set, Berrettini was down 2-5 and Djokovic was serving, in the eighth game, for the set. Somehow, not only did Berrettini hang on and break Djokovic's serve, but he held serve, broke Djokovic a second time, eventually forced the set into a tie breaker, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the tie breaker, and won the first set.
Berrettini started shaky in that first set, but saving the set and breaking Djokovic settled him down. His booming serve and powerful forehand shots put Djokovic on his heels. Djokovic controlled the match early, but, in the eighth game, Berrettini seized the momentum and I uttered that terrible cliche to myself, promising to never say it again, "Well, we've got a tennis match!"
I don't have a deep enough knowledge either of tennis nor of the mental strength of Novak Djokovic to explain what inner resources he drew upon to immediately break Berrettini in the second set and seize a 4-0 lead. Djokovic is remarkably adept at making adjustments during a match and, in this second set, his uncanny ability to return much of what Berrettini rocketed at him combined with moving his opponent all over the court with his returns and hitting to Berrettini's backhand more often opened the way for Djokovic to impose his will on Berrettini.
Djokovic evened the match by winning the second set and continued to keep Berrettini's shots at him in play, blanket his side of the court with speed, and hit shots made possible only because of his imagination, flexibility, and versatility. It's mind-boggling to watch how Djokovic comes at opponents with thunderous shots, deft volleys, delicate lobs, and pinpoint returns hit at what seem to be impossible angles.
Add to this the way Djokovic consistently wins points at crucial junctures in his matches. It's otherworldly. It's a mark of his confidence, determination, and savvy.
After dropping the first set, Djokovic swept the next three and won his sixth Wimbledon title and his 20th major title (tying him with Federer and Nadal for most career major wins).
When Djokovic enters the US Open later this summer, should he win it, he will be the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four majors in a calendar year -- Steffi Graff won all four majors in 1988 and also won the Olympic gold medal that year. It remains to be seen if Djokovic will play in the Olympics, if he will pursue what is known as the Golden Slam, winning the four majors and an Olympic gold medal in one year. After his Wimbledon victory, Djokovic said that chances are about 50/50 that he'll compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
2. The Westminster Basement Study Group met this afternoon on Zoom for another discussion of literary comedy. I am responsible for setting our discussions in motion and today I drew on my experience from the first time I taught the Literature of Comedy course at LCC over 20 years ago when I focused on stories, movies (like the Wizard of Oz), and plays that told about characters being isolated or separated from home and that were resolved with a return home or with a discovery of home.
I emphasized in that course and again today in our Zoom discussion that home is both an external reality -- it's the place where we feel secure, safe, protected, a sense of belonging, and comfort -- and an inward reality. What we see character experience in the outward action of these stories parallels the inner experience of discovering security, ease, acceptance, balance, and confidence within one's self.
Our discussion was wide-ranging, moving me to say to those present that what I loved about my days doing improvisational theater was we were guided by the simple principle of "Yes, and". One actor received, accepted, and built upon what the other actors had to give. Today we discussed the idea of home and nourished our understanding of comic vision in many ways, but never with disagreement. No one every said, "but" -- no one said, "yes, but" or "no, but". Our comments in response to one another were always in the spirit of "yes, and". As a result, we significantly expanded our collective understanding of comedy and the concept of home.
This has been a most stimulating project and has deepened our friendships and strengthened the bonds that connect us.
3. I am hosting family dinner on Monday and I don't enjoy trying to get everything ready the day of our getting together, so, after Zooming, I made a couple of grain and legume salads and they are ready to go. I am going to make one more salad for the heck of it and I'll have it done in the morning on Monday. Then I'll get the house spiffed up a bit, get it cooled down, and I'll be ready for the family to come over and enjoy a cold meal together.
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