By Scarlett DeRousse, RMU Student.
America: land of the hot dog, apple pie, and the nation’s favorite pastime: baseball. As April rolls in, all is normal and well as the first pitches are thrown, and American cities can begin to hate each other once more. A wave of excitement and hope sweeps across the nation as fans root for their currently flawless team. But this excitement is not as strong anywhere as it is in Chicago with the Chicago Cubs. Writing for the Tribune, David Haugh saw that”the enthusiasm of Cubs fans made its presence felt in the first outing of 2016″. Of course, a “blank slate” is nothing new for the Cubs, but it is April so their hearts are in October. I guess Nelson Algren was speaking the truth when he said that “Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring”. This time, though, it is not just fans who are living on hopes of the future: According to Haugh, “On day one, the Cubs already were thinking as if it will be a long one”. Last years near success, changed the team’s focus to “staying fresh for September and October”. It is a long time until October’s playoffs, but all eyes will be watching the Cubs, especially in Chicago and St. Louis.
during game four of the National League Division Series at Wrigley Field on October 13, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.
“In baseball, as in life, all important things happen at home,” and so my heart is with my home team in St. Louis. I was raised on the bleachers outside those dusty fields, so naturally I have a love of the game. Unfortunately, I ended up in the city of my home team’s rival. My presence in Chicago for everything else grew and intertwined myself deeper with the city, but my love of the game has never made me feel more like an outfielder. As the season takes it opening, I become a little less Chicagoan. I love this city, but I hate it’s team.This part of myself, however, is at risk with the potential success of the Cubs. This side of my identity is built on the confidence against my new town, and the win of a World Series would crush my St. Louis pride. Would I be a Cubs fan? Absolutely not! It would, however, take away the superiority and confidence I receive as being a Cardinals fan.
However, with a history like the Cubs, it is unlikely they will make history.
While the Cubs may have been caught up in their fantasies last season, reality hit like a 
fastball. Apparently, that reality wasn’t hard enough to crush the hopes for next season; that hope is over 100 years old, so its doubtful anything can. Even I, a Cardinals fan, cannot deny their potential. But I am no Cubs fan, so I live in reality; that potential is nothing more than potential. The Cubs may be able to get close this season to winning it all, but close doesn’t make dreams come true. The Cubs will lose, I will stay rooted in my Cardinal identity, and I will always root root root for my home team.
fighting? Scratch that; I really don’t care. Any explication of the plot will be absurd. Putting these two characters in the same film would be like plopping Indiana Jones down in a James Bond movie. What is the point? It reminds me of when Scooby Doo would inexplicably team up with Sonny & Cher or the Harlem Globetrotters. Come on! Why are these people hanging out with meddling kids and helping solve mysteries? I say again, ‘ridiculously asinine’.
accomplished this better than Christopher Nolan’s adaption of Frank Miller’s ‘Dark Knight’ series. The Batman/Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s films is emotionally and mentally fragile. He is complex. Sure, you know Batman will win in the end. But Nolan creates realistically troubling adversity for his hero. He wants you, the viewer, to ask questions. Are you sure Batman’s vigilantism is a positive thing? Is he obsessed with justice so much that it will destroy him and all he loves? And, what about Batman’s relationship with his arch-nemesis, The Joker? Perhaps Batman should have killed The Joker? The Joker, like Batman, is mortal. He is not some demigod or alien. These films then illustrate the struggle of man v. man, not monster v. monster. For goodness sakes, by the third installment of the series, Bruce Wayne needs to get a knee brace if he wants to keep fighting villains! Can’t get much more human than that.
movements and foresee actions. But, the show illustrates the challenges of these ‘powers’. The character must train himself to use this power, and prepare himself physically to fight the evil all around him. He does not have super-strength, super-speed or the ability to shoot lasers out of any orifices. Since he is just a man with some unlikely mental abilities, Daredevil doesn’t automatically win all his fights. Out on the streets of NYC, he usually gives worse than he takes, but he takes quite a bit. He comes home with scratches, bruises, sprains and breaks. Daredevil could lose. The tension is real.
personally. I mean, I love my family, I make decent money, and grades come and go. I thought to myself, what was this thing that creates true happiness? And then it came to m: ‘Flow’. ‘Flow’ you ask? You see, I learned this concept while taking a psychology class at Harper College in my freshman year. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the former head of the psychology department at the University of Chicago and the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College. The idea of ‘Flow’ was introduced by Csikszentmihalyi as a tool to measure genuine satisfaction and true happiness.
this would create anxiety. By the same token, if a task has a low level of challenge and a high skill level required, one would become relaxed and less engaged. In a perfect world everyone would have high skill and challenge levels; this is where ‘flow’ takes hold. When in ‘flow’, while at work or at play, a person is in a state where nothing else matters. This means focused, productive, and more importantly, happy and satisfied; that mental state where nothing is distracting and you are completely zoned in on the task at hand. The cool thing about this concept is that you can identify when you are in flow, and when you are not. Here is what you can do:
tasks.
his generation, he was a leftist who flirted with Communism before becoming disenchanted by Stalin, Stalinism and the horrendous crimes perpetuated by the regime during that era.
The Flâneur's Turtle 