Choosing Sides, Checking (bona) Fides: "Make good choices!"

Pre-game Warm-up: Prior to "Game on!" Well before the tempers rise to a level that could easily result in a defrost in around the 100000 zip code area (in and around Bejing for those of you who don't track such trivia like me, just in case of I'm put into "Jeopardy")...and way before we walked on to the sandlot for a 'friendly' (yeah, right) game of "pick-up", was the pre-game ritual of "choosing up sides" which itself becomes a dynamic process involving stratagems, gambits, negotiations, push-and-shove (literally), give-and take (as in "you give us Johnny and you can have both Sammy and Donnie", which may have looked like a slam on the latter two unless you had done your due diligence and knew one was a bit of a 'slacker')...psychological warfare regarding who would have the edge well before the first whistle (we didn't actually have one, but pretended). We even argued in games of "home run derby" who would get to personify which childhood hero of the majors -- nothing was minor to us when it came to such casual, friendly affairs. This included not only who was going to be on which team but just as much how this was to be accomplished (e.g., who got to pick first, kind of like how HUGE events like the "SUPER BOWL" start with shaking of hands, followed by a simple coin flip, then...). The latter became complicated and more dramatic depending on the number of players available, especially if an 'odd lot' (as in numbers, LOL). And then there's the hurt feelings and occasional acts of compassion even before the game begins...ever been the last one chosen, or "odd man out"?! It sucks big time. 

Minors to Majors: This (pre) game of intrigue ranges not only from the age of minors to that of majority, but also from the more casual pick-up games around our 'hoods to those on the larger stage, even Olympic sized rinks, and beyond, those of historical significance. Represented this very morning, by quotes that have broad historical implications across the whole globe...both pre- and post- (war)games (at least that's how the buildup and simulation of thousands of soldiers on the Russia/Ukraine border was characterized by one analyst). As overheard on BBC this morning while doing my own warm-up: "You (US, the U.S.) were generally pragmatic in who you chose to align with here (in Libya) throughout the years...you were known to change sides depending on the politics and contingencies at the time..." And "They (the countries near and on the border of Ukraine and ROC, I mean Russia), can't be forced to choose who they'll align with if a more serious action takes place here...these are sovereign nations who will determine their own destiny..." And on it goes, here and there -- geopolitical gesticulations, machinations, pre-, post-, choosing sides, checking bona fides. And if approached, as if to "align"...be careful...it's likely to be...

Minefields in an Age of Innocence(?): Before, during and after the "Games", that is. In terms of who you choose to align with. Just ask the one of the anticipated stars of these Winter Olympics, an ice skater who, while born in these States, decided to go for gold on behalf of her parents' homeland, who started off a 'darling' and, after falling at two critical moments, fell from grace and awaits her fate, given her awareness of the precarious nature of another young Chinese woman who fell out of grace, "Love lost" with the political elites, despite her prowess as a tennis player. Fragile alliances these are. And then comes another young female skater, representing the "ROC" who, after skating almost flawlessly, was told her "gold is on hold", after which informed she had "failed!", as in a drug test, which put her and her ROC team into a precarious spot, perhaps completely off the prized podium. Unlikely she was, in her age of innocence, completely aware of what was being put into her system by this 'system', one which has been at this ever since the words "Cold" and "War" were often found aligned. A time period during which such subjects of the State that found themselves in such precarious predicaments, when offered the option of "coming in from the cold" took the offer, to "defect", go to the "other side" (when was the last time you heard this word, defect?). And finally, one more 'Russian Connection', a lad (16), who probably at the moment would vote himself to disconnect, who ostensibly, innocently, walked into a virtual minefield while playing "Minecraft" ("Siberian teen sent to prison for plotting to blow up virtual version of a government building...").

SUPER-alignments: Stay tuned; it's likely to heat up even more. And we ourselves may become fickle in our affiliates, who we choose, as in "fantasy football", as in the real thing, this Sunday, the "SUPER Bowl" A game in which many of us, depending on how it's going, may change our wagers at halftime. Wanna bet? Make Good Choices!