Conversations with my bride are often interesting. For example, the other day I brought a bunch of grapes into the room to eat while I was reading. Before starting, I received a telephone call from a friend who wanted me on his talk show. It was pleasant talking to him, until I noticed the last of my grapes disappearing – Sheila was sitting next to me. I brought in some more and, as she reached, pointed out that they were my grapes. “I’ll trade you some chocolate for some grapes,” she said. I asked where she had chocolate. She replied, “I don’t, but you do in your drawer.” “In other words,” I responded, “you will trade me my chocolate for my grapes.” “Yes.” Then she looked at me and said, “Isn’t it a good thing we didn’t know each other too well before we got married?’’

Stephen keeps exotic tropical fish. Part of their diet includes worms he digs from the garden or, being short of garden worms, some he purchases at the store for his fishing trips. He told me that there is an interesting difference between the two groups of worms, despite the fact that they look exactly alike – to him. He reports that when he drops a garden worm in the aquarium, the fish go after it immediately, but when he drops in one he has purchased the fish ignore it, only casually going after it once it is lying on the bottom of the aquarium. Isn’t it interesting? We haven’t the foggiest idea of why.

AustinPeayStateUniversity announced a display of art work by former students. Each person was permitted to submit three works and a university panel would decide which of them should be displayed. All three of Sheila’s entrées were accepted for display. One won a ribbon. The Art Department Chair told her that another one received very favorable comment and invited her to display her work at a permanent display room they were opening downtown. Sheila said I shouldn’t talk about this because she doesn’t approve of bragging, but I’m doing the bragging. When Sheila was debating whether she should continue painting or not earlier this year, I told her that her problem was her strict background had taught her nothing she did was “good enough.” That I thought her work was excellent – except for a lack of female nudes. To prove me wrong, she resumed painting. The ribbon and compliments prove me right again. I usually am, as I have always told my children, who should listen to me more carefully. 

One has to admire the city of Dickson. Authorities across the nation are warning people to stay away from crowds. Schools are being closed and shoppers are wearing masks to avoid contamination with the killer swine flu. But not Dickson. Dickson held its 34^th annual charity fundraiser “Christmas in the County” arts and crafts festival Saturday at the DicksonHigh School. Accepting quiet but firm pressure from my bride, I attended along with her. I can’t remember a more crowded event. The halls were lined with tiny cubicles for artists to display their work: charcoal drawings, oil paintings, stained glass, wood carvings, jewelry, needlework – you name it, it was there along with the creators. To walk down the hallways was an adventure, the cubicles, artists and admirers filled all but a narrow lane while those trying to walk along stood in lines as in a mess hall except that the lines were moving in two directions. Thus, while bumping into the person in front trying to go west, you had to shove past the other person in front trying to go east. The dining room and the gymnasium were equally bad, with narrow pathways between cubicles lining the walls and positioned in rows created where students ate lunches and played basketball during the day. Yep, no fear of swine flu or any other contagious disease in Dickson. Dickson has courage. I wondered if the event was sponsored by the medical association.

A lady from church announced with pride that her daughter and son-in-law were expecting a second child after the great difficulty they had in securing the first. As an addendum she commented that the first was now crawling and standing. There were numerous responses to her announcement. All of the women said, “How wonderful!” ALL of the men responded, “Knock her down, once that baby starts walking it only gets worse.” So much for no sex differences.

Then a second report appeared, usually appearing on television with shows of football players crashing into one another. This second article reported that professional football players were nineteen times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (dementia) than were men in the normal work force. It seems the football association is concerned about this and is investigating the matter further. 

Why limit the investigation to professional football? When these men talk about their careers, one and all (it seems) report that they played football in junior high school, in high school and in college. It is not just in professional football that players crash into one another in “head to head” encounters. It happens in junior high school, high school and college as well. A difference is that professional football players are provided with the finest protective equipment available and, if injured on the field, receive immediate medical treatment. Those playing football in schools, especially those in junior high and high schools have less protection, much less protection.

Hundreds of millions of the tax dollars collected from citizens to pay for the education necessary to succeed in life (English, language, mathematics) are spent on providing football games. That money includes not only the immediate costs of coaches, equipment and transportation to and from games, but also the construction and maintenance of football fields and spectator stands, not to mention the training room equipment also provided in many schools. 

My friend, Dr. John Goodwin, was a highly successful football coach in a junior high school as a young man. He quit; over the objections of the players, parents, the administration and other coaches. He explained to me that every year he had coached at least one of his players had suffered a life time injury, usually to the knees, and that he, as a Christian, could not continue encouraging children to play a sport that might injure them for life. But a knee injury is trivial compared to damage to the brain.

A more important study for parents, which includes most of the people, than that of determining if professional football increases the probability of dementia in players would be a study that checked the possibility that junior high, senior high and college football players suffer an increase in dementia as adults. Is it possible that in the interests of providing entertainment for the public we are increasing the probability of mental as well as physical injury to our young?