Some are allergic to jazz, just like some are allergic to many delicious and nourishing foods, or think they are. I get it.
Alice Coltrane’s Journey to Satchidananda (1970), from the eponymous album, is jazz, but gentle jazz, also delicious and nourishing. It features Alice Coltrane on harp and Pharaoh Sanders on sax.
Nothing wrong, ever, with six minutes of healing.
Some politicians, without naming names or pointing fingers, do what will get themselves elected/reelected (by votes) or keep them in the race (by not being primaried), and convince themselves that their actions are therefore “the right thing”. This gives them some peace, as in not anguishing and losing sleep, by bridging the gap between pragmatism and principle.
This has been on display for as long as there has been politics. But it has been especially evident in these times, as the gap between political action and the right, humane, legal, constitutional, reasonable thing grows wider.
Again, not naming names, but the most recent weekly message from our Congressman reflects this. To supplement the above thoughts, one might say that the gap between politics and principle is frequently filled with, to be polite, nonsense. Ever thus. But knowing that is the case, especially these days, does not make it easier.
As I’m writing about the Toronto Blue Jays (American League champion) and Canada, it prompts me to think about the irreplaceable music by Canadian artists , and to wonder how many of them are Blue Jays fans.
I wanted to pick just one song by one musical Blue Jays fan, so here it is. Geddy Lee of Rush (45 million albums sold) is frequently seen at Blue Jays games. Hard to pick just one Rush track, so here it is.
Tom Sawyer (1981) has nothing to do with baseball. Or does it? Maybe you don’t like Rush. Maybe you don’t like this kind of music or music in general. Maybe you don’t like Canada. Maybe you don’t like baseball. As I wrote in my last post, it’s a free country?
Anyway, if you let this move you, lift you, perplex you, it will.
The Toronto Blue Jays have won the championship of the MLB American League, heading to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
When the Arizona Diamondbacks (National League champion in 2023) failed to make this year’s playoffs, I temporarily moved my fandom for this season to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Why? Because I already liked our North American neighbor Canada, but when Trump began his campaign of disdain and disrespect—idiotically suggesting that it should become the 51st state—I became a bigger Canada supporter and promoter.
It is still a question whether the Blue Jays can defeat the Dodgers, though it would be great to have a Canadian team as world champion of the American game (they have before, 31 years ago).
I am guessing that some MAGA people, often uninformed and irrational, will clamor for this Canadian team to be excluded entirely from Major League Baseball. Or, alternatively, will push harder for Canada as a 51st state.
I’m not saying that if you don’t love Trump you should love the Blue Jays. I’m not not saying that. Maybe you love LA, maybe you love the Dodgers. It’s a free country?
All I’m saying is that the Blue Jays are a very good baseball team, that Canada is a very good independent country with lots to recommend it, so rooting for the Blue Jays is worth considering. O Canada! Go Canada!
© 2025 Bob Schwartz
Bob Schwartz 