I am always thrilled and secretly amused by the crazy naming we have in this area. I love going to events and seeing the names of Ancient Rome, Roman writers and philosophers, towns and personalities blazed across these young chests proudly stating that they are: Tully, Seneca, Ovid, Romulus, Manlius, Ulysses, Homer, Rome, and so on. Ancient Rome takes on Native America with teams that evoke those names and places.

I am secretly harboring a passion to take portraits of these athetes… singletons or could be these sensational posed pix for the “moms” which I pretend I am one of… with a salient quote from Seneca or Homer or the person/ place these groups of sweating teenagers represent.

I hope I am not the only person humored by these wonderful names and references that go beyond the painted lines of playing fields and into our minds, our cultural history referencing a romantic time worthy of honoring on new maps with straight lines in this crazy lake filled countryside we live in.

Just a thought.

“Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. “

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Light is the task where many share the toil. ”

Homer