Mike O'Connell

Funny, before a month ago or so I assumed the people of this world (myself included) were just moving toward more and more physical isolation from one another. We walk around with our eyes glued to our phones, we text people sitting across the room, and we conduct business without ever speaking to a human being.

Yet when we’re faced with actual isolation (“social distancing” is what we’re calling it–in case I’m reading this years from now), there’s a definite backlash.

Good, I guess. No?

We’re not in the Twilight Zone or a Bradbury novel just yet. All those years we were running home from work just so we could get to our screens and connect online… looks a lot different now that we don’t get to do the go-to-work-first part doesn’t it? Amazingly I miss that part, and I don’t think I’m alone.

Well, some day we can go back to just fantasizing about a world without going to work.

Thank God for 30-year-old sports highlights to watch on Sunday nights, even those interspersed with 21st-century melodrama. The Last Dance gives 30-somethings (and up) a chance to relive their youth and actually see some competition that’s not a prerecorded singing contest.

Too bad most people I associate with think Michael Jordan is the bad guy from Black Panther.

They say any port in a storm, but sometimes the port ends up being really awesome.

In the sportsless world known as April 2020 there is The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary chronicling the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls. The sports franchise of my youth.

Last night I watched the first two episodes. (They’re being released two at a time.) In a word… they’re great, and one wonders why it took 22 years to get this thing together. Honestly, though, I think the subject matter—basketball is but a mere subplot—is one I can appreciate more at age 37 than at 15.

Ratings, naturally, are through the roof. What the heck else ya gonna watch to get your sports fix? Games you already know the result of? (Wait, that’s exactly what this is!)

Give me parts 3-10 pronto!

This is blog post number 1,000 at mikeoconnelljr.com.

I’d always planned a bigger celebration than this.

Well, nobody feels too much like celebrating these days.

Party’s on hold, I guess, like many things in the world now.

Some day. Some day.

Family gathering for a breakfast of French toast: yes.

Church: no.

This was my kind of Easter.