In which we whine gratuitously

I must have been especially bothered by people taking off their shoes in bathroom stalls, as I mentioned it twice in my life coaching. I corrected that for the new site. I realize that a lot of people are worried about other things going on in bathrooms, and I know some folks who, in protest, won’t go to the bathroom in North Carolina, simply holding their legs tightly together as they drive between Virginia and South Carolina, but the Life Coach has less lofty designs on the subject than the maintenance of civil rights. All those years debate coaching instilled in me the idea of universal rights as a given, no matter how much evidence time and history might offer that rights are instead a battle royal. Call me Nellie Forbush.

(Then again, what kind of name is Nellie Forbush? What was Michener thinking?)

This is the week where everyone on Facebook girds the old loins and heads out to NatNats. As the VCA knows well, I have never NatNatted, always having been short on available weeks in June, and for that matter never terribly long on the idea of any tournament lasting a week. And of course, the Sailors were all still thinking about things like exams and graduating and other silly stuff like that, so there were plenty of times when people would qualify at the district tournament and, about five minutes later, they would be struck by reality, and the First Runner Up would be taking over Miss America’s duties before the bus even came to take everyone home. Not that I had anything against the organization—no, strike that. I had a lot against the organization, including not that it did not accommodate the northeast school schedule, but that it punished students because of that schedule, limiting their opportunities for participation for reasons beyond their control. Ah, the old Red Light District. I gather that the org has since come around to some extent, which is as it ought to be. But my years as chair were not happy ones. Oh, well, water under the bridge, as they say. Now my complaint is the walled garden. Yeah, I know they need money, but paid members not being fully on the other side of the wall? Feh. No wonder I prefer organizations like NDCA. That one may skew toward policy, but at least it’s open and transparent, with a goal of spreading information. As we always say, knowledge is that one thing you can both keep and give away at the same time. Unless you have to pay extra for the premium package.

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