GOOD MORNING WORLD
Well it is here. This is the one day of the year that I watch sports. I am going to make another confession. I like contests that have history and strength and resilience and that are over in 2 minutes.
CONFESSION – This is another love affair! I am quite fickle!!!
I love the Kentucky Derby. I love the hype, the colors, the over the top announcing, the paddocks – the hullabaloo about a bunch of horses running around a track! If I can I am certain that I am in front of a TV on the first Saturday of May. One year I wanted to see it so much that since we had friends coming for dinner I made it a Derby theme and gave everyone race cards and forms and we cheered on our favorite.
I made burgoo stew and mint juleps and thoroughbred pie. The stew was glorified beef stew. The pie a big chocolate chip cookie and the mint juleps were nothing but sweetened bourbon. As the evening wore on mine became more sweeten as the bourbon burned! We had a great time as this was the year of Barbaro and one of our guests was a Barbara. The sadness after the run was hard to handle.
I usually do not get much into the stats anymore until the day. Today I will check the paper to see who is running – well now the internet. I will look over the horse’s lineage and the history of the stables. Not in depth just a cursory look. I will watch the owners with their trainers and jockeys. I will then choose a horse that I will cheer for as the race begins. Picking a winner is not important to me. Watching the horse I pick is the fun of the race. It is not about winners and losers for me.
This year is the 139th and there is a big deal going on in Kentucky as the first woman jockey is entering the race. I am so surprised that a woman has not tried this before simply due to stature of women being smaller than men. I know others have tried and Rosie Napravnck has won. Go to the Derby website and check out the article. The author says that gender aside she is on of the world’s best jockeys. She will be riding Mylute.
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/news/2013/05/03/poised-derby-stage-set-rosie-napravniks-charge-history
So while writing this I have taken time to look at the field. The longest odds 40-1 are on ‘Falling Sky’ and ‘Giant Finish’. As of this writing I am looking at following ‘Oxbow’ 24-1 from Calumet Farms. The reasons? I have driven by this farm and it is gorgeous and no tiny farm. It goes on for miles it seemed as we traveled the highway. I came home and looked it up on the internet to see where we had been. Now I am able to do this on my smart phone as we travel!!! I like the black and gold colors too!
Churchill Downs is a pretty impressive place to pass on the highway. I will look forward this day to hearing……”they’re off”!
Another reason for the title ‘Southern Exposure’ is that I have a cousin being married today in Georgia. This seemed a really nice place to send them a hug and tell them I will be praying for a lovely day today for them.
Married is an interesting way to spend your life. Not unlike horse racing actually when you think about it. You know the track has a beginning and an end. While a race is two minutes it can be done quicker than that. A marriage is to be a lifetime and we know not how long that is for any of us as it can end without choice if someone dies early.
Newlyweds begin eagerly chomping at the bit to get their lives going. They want to be together in a way that makes walking away hard thus they make the commitment to marry. Otherwise people could simply live together and move around when the ‘love’ is no longer there. I would tender that it is not the ‘love’ that is no longer there. I would suggest that the ‘lust’ has gone and the real love, the love that sticks through thick and thin was not there to begin with at the outset.
I know I know I hear you. I am not judging. I am only suggesting that a marriage born in trust and love and faith with no escape clause can overcome just about anything even infidelity, alcohol, drugs and other issues. Help is available for most. Many do not look for it. Many simply opt out. Some look for help and it still does not work so divorce is the only choice. There is no right or wrong for anyone. For me it is a lifetime commitment and while for the most of the life thus far it is wonderful it has not always been easy for either of us.
Back to the analogy of marriage and horse racing. You pay your money you take your chances! Our marriage license cost $2.50! The price of a bet is what you want to wager. You can even bet the Derby online!
Once you are married you learn about each other. I love to hear couples talk about living together as a way to learn to live with each other for marriage. Statistics prove it. It makes no difference at all. The toothpaste still is squeezed a different way and the toilet paper only has two choices of how it goes on a holder. The work of marriage is overcoming the obstacles lovingly and kindly and with just the right amount of strength and tenderness. Words matter in how this is approached as well.
Not unlike a jockey guiding the horse around the track as he pulls the reins, lets them out, speaks to the horse with his voice and knees and crop as urges his horse to the finish to be the winner. Again – not suggesting a crop is appropriate for marriage! Though……….
Seemed kind of a fun way to tie these two events together. It is a second marriage for my cousin and his soon to be wife. They have had to put the sadness of the end of their firsts behind them. They took time to grieve and heal and come together as resilient people. Willing again to make a lifelong commitment to another person. That is courage.
I have seen this couple and how they look at each other. There is a gentleness to their gaze. There is kindness in their touch. My cousin’s demeanor is calmer. I look forward to getting to know his new wife. I see much hope for their future.
Like the Derby. I like to see the people who own the horses and how they interact with the announcers, each other and their trainers and jockeys. Much can be said by the kindness of words and actions, even on Derby Day, and in life.
Face it – I am an easy target for a love story. I read “Black Beauty”, “National Velvet” and “Secretariat”. I’ve read “WutheringHeights”, “Love Story” and I have lived a happy 44 yr marriage. The sun is shining the birds are singing and it is a Southern Exposure sort of genteel kind of warm welcoming day out there. Blessings abound! Good Luck to Kentucky and Love and Blessings to Georgia.
…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…
ktsquared 