1. This morning the Westminster Basement Study Group met on ZOOM. We missed Colette and Bridgit, so Val, Bill, Diane, and I shouldered forward on our own and our discussion was exciting and stimulating.
I've initiated conversation in our salon for the last few months by making some prepared remarks about the literary genre of comedy, but, last time we met, we drew that study to its open-ended conclusion. We'll continue to return to it, but it won't be our focus.
Today, we went back to what we did for months in our discussions -- we just jumped in and started talking about whatever came up.
Val triggered a fun and in depth discussion of the nature of the study of history. Val is currently enrolled in an online graduate program at the Univ of Nebraska-Kearney in history, working toward a master's degree.
She is reading a book on historiography, Thinking About History by Sarah Maza. Along with English, I majored in history at Whitworth and, looking back, I wish I had taken a course in historiography because as I've grown older, my interest has been as much in how history is explored and presented as much as in what we learn from history.
The how and what of history are inseparable, really, because what a historian understands history to be and what methods the historian employs in studying it shapes, then, the historian's presentation of history.
In our conversation, as we focused on the question of just what we mean when we talk about history, we all agreed that in many (but not all) of our history courses, the focus was on leaders, great events, and the story of nations -- especially the USA.
Today we talked about how history can also be told by the study of a wide variety of things like, say, artifacts or by studying things people do -- like work, cook, recreate, etc. -- and, that to bring history alive, historians often draw upon the methods of fiction writing. In fact, the more we talked, the more we realized that much of the history we read (or watch on film) is a kind of competition between different people's stories of what happened and the competing interpretations of those stories and that, if we are observant, we can see, as current events unfold and are reflected upon, we see conflicts arise centered on whose story will eventually become the dominant narrative.
This discussion led us (and I didn't steer us this way!!) to Shakespeare.
In October, we Basementeers will be discussing the first season of The Hollow Crown, a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's second tetralogy of history plays, Richard II, Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V.
One of the questions we'll definitely discuss is the great difference between history, as told by Shakespeare, and history as we know it in the post-Enlightenment age of social science.
I'll leave it that.
I'll pick up this thread again in October when the Basementeers' discussions about Shakespeare and history get underway.
Oh! For some reason, our very stimulating discussion about history and Shakespeare and the power of narratives made me thirsty for some late morning beer.
I gave in.
For the first time in my life, I cracked open a stubby bottle of Full Sail's Session Hefeweizen. It was a perfect 11:00 a.m. (or so) beer. It was light, but not shallow. I loved the texture of this Hefeweisen. Its mouthfeel was full and pleasurable and it tasted great -- so great that I enjoyed a second. I could have downed a third, but then I'd be out of Hefeweizens and I decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and stopped at two.
2. In fact, upon ending our ZOOM session, when I headed into the Vizio room to watch the final round of the Tour Championship golf tournament, I drank no more beer.
I wanted to give this final round of golf of the PGA season and the competition for the FedEx Cup my full attention.
Similar to a week ago, at the BMW Championship, when Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau separated themselves from the field and competed one on one until Cantlay won on the sixth playoff hole, today, Cantlay and the world's top-ranked player, John Rahm separated themselves from the other golfers and competed head to head as this tournament concluded.
Although the contrast between Cantlay and Rahm wasn't quite as pronounced as the difference last week between Cantlay and DeChambeau, they do play different games. Rahm is a powerful player who also is imaginative and deft creating shots around the green.
Cantlay is powerful enough, but Rahm outdrove him on nearly every hole. Consequently, once again this week, we got to see Cantlay's skill at striking slightly longer irons into the green. But, even more, we got to see Cantlay's calm control of himself when in trouble.
For example, on the 15th hole, a par 3, Cantlay's tee shot wandered to the right and landed just short of the hole's water hazard. Rahm hit his tee shot on the green and left himself a makable birdie putt. Cantlay gathered himself, hit his second shot close to the pin and made his par putt. Rahm missed his birdie.
Then, on the 17th hole, Cantlay once again lost a tee shot to the right -- at first it looked like he had hit it far right. But, his shot struck a tree and ricocheted in a favorable direction and he had a clear shot to the green, albeit from a difficult lie in the rough's wiry Bermuda grass.
From the rough, Cantlay hit a wayward shot well left of the green and his ball lay on a sketchy patch of turf again.
Meanwhile, Rahm drove into the middle of the fairway and hit a splendid second shot on the green and, again, had a very makable putt for birdie.
Cantlay's third shot didn't reach the green and was tangled in thick grass on the green's edge. He managed to chip out of this tough lie to within about six feet of the hole.
If Rahm were to make his birdie putt and if Cantlay were to miss his bogey putt, Rahm would make up three strokes on this hole and his two stroke deficit would become a one stroke lead.
But, Rahm's putt slid by the hole. He parred it.
Cantlay, true to form -- his new nickname is "Ice Patty" -- sank his bogey putt.
He managed to only lose one stroke to Rahm and headed into the 18th with a one stroke lead.
On the par 5 18th, Rahm hit a monster drive, in perfect position to reach the green in two.
Cantlay, under great pressure, responded by hitting his longest drive of the week. It was straight, landed past Rahm's shot, and left him in an even better position to reach the green in two.
Rahm then struck a laser that nearly hit the pin, but rolled just off the green.
Cantlay answered with a splendid six iron that left him twelve feet shy of the pin.
Rahm had to chip his shot for eagle and his masterful attempt eased past the hole.
Cantlay, then, had two putts to win the title -- and he executed them.
Man, I had fun watching the close of this tournament, fun made even more enjoyable by having Byrdman and TATurner on hand for our exchange of insightful and witty text messages.
3. Was it possible that this great day of intelligent conversation and scintillating golf could get even better?
Well, I would say it could have -- if we'd had Sunday family dinner.
But, we took today off, and so, if I were to keep the momentum going, I was on my own.
To be honest, I didn't quite succeed!
This day peaked out at about 3:00, but no problem.
I very much enjoyed sautéing a small chopped onion, adding fairly finely chopped cauliflower and broccoli to it, adding a clump of leftover jasmine rice to that, cooking it all up, and adding, in the end, a broken egg. Once the egg cooked, I put this quasi-stir fry in a bowl and seasoned it with Bragg Liquid Aminos.
I loved this dinner -- not as much as ZOOMing, not as much as the two Hefeweizens, not as much as the golf, but I loved it and felt nourished as I spent the rest of the evening relaxing with an acrostic puzzle or two.
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