Mid-East / Mid-West

Our calling those states "Midwest" is a veiled indication of our Islamophobia. :-)

The University of Michigan football "fight song" (song meant to rally the team) has the line, "... champions of the west." The song was written in 1901, or something like that, and at that time California was a state. So I'm not at all clear why it was still considered "the west." It probably harkens back to some ancient time when Chicago was considered the far western outpost of America.

To add to the irony, Michigan played in the first Rose Bowl football game in 1902. They played Stanford, which is in California. Go figure. Michigan won, 49-0. That was during Fielding H. Yost's tenure as coach. His teams were essentially unstoppable. They played a brand of football that would no doubt be unrecognizable today. And the worst college team of today would pulverize the best from that era. Back then, a lineman who weighed in at 200 pounds would be a freak of nature; now they commonly weigh in at 300+ pounds, are very strong and very quick, and often very tall to boot -- generally in the 6'5" range.

* * *
The world is fueled by fear and desire, not fear and hope. The statement about not seeing much hope for the world is perfectly understandable if one looks only at this world. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems to me desire is a derivative of something.

I also am struck again by how Dallas Willard very intentionally defined love and desire as two different things. Desire is a selfish thing, involving what I want. Love, by his definition, is a selfless thing, doing what is best for the other. And I'm also struck by how his definition does not include "doing what the other wants." Desire on the other's part may also be selfish and ultimately unhelpful to that person.

Yes, I know -- who determines what is "best?" etc., etc.