{"id":1626,"date":"2012-09-18T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=1626"},"modified":"2012-09-18T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T00:32:07","slug":"the-search-for-time-lost-last-sunday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=1626","title":{"rendered":"The search for time lost: last Sunday morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NB: Everything posted under these four “The search for time lost” posts was composed in real time as noted.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Standing in the Conservatory of the Opryland Hotel, I understand the fascination now. It’s everything I wanted from Disney World back in the 1990s: the artificial reality, the vast open space, the surreal sense that something different could happen here. And I’m glad we stayed here, the wife and I, the first time I brought her to Nashville nine years ago. Especially coming straight from a Disney resort. And the fact that it’s only about a fifteen minute drive from West End means I would totally and absolutely do this next year. Pick out a good home game, plan for at least three days, stay at the Opryland hotel, see all of Nashville, tailgate like I mean it and hopefully for more than three hours.<\/p>\n

This weekend was a test. 15 years after leaving under my own ignominious circumstances, what does Vanderbilt mean to me now?<\/p>\n

One thing I learned is that I’ve matured. I bought no jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, nothing I didn’t actually need. My big splurge was a new polo shirt (in gold dri-fit suitable for Cal games), a new lanyard, a new book about the history of Vanderbilt football, and one utterly superfluous scarf. I guess I already own all the things<\/em> I need to make me feel I belong to Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

What I got out of this weekend was what almost every other SEC fan who never attended their school has. I was a fan among fans. I tailgated, I drank, I cheered, I had a great time. My fandom, my authenticity<\/em> as a Vanderbilt supporter, has finally been confirmed beyond question for me. And really, I’m the only one who needed<\/em> to prove it – absolutely nobody else doubted it.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to make too much of this, but it’s entirely possible that for the first time, I may have actually retrieved something from the black hole and brought it back. It doesn’t have<\/em> to be what it used<\/em> to be, it can be what it is now<\/em>. Which has been what I’ve struggled to learn for years now: stop trying to be who you were and just become who you are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NB: Everything posted under these four “The search for time lost” posts was composed in real time as noted.) Standing in the Conservatory of the Opryland Hotel, I understand the fascination now. It’s everything I wanted from Disney World back in the 1990s: the artificial reality, the vast open space, the surreal sense that something … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The search for time lost: last Sunday morning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}