Wynning:
At 3:07 AM Saturday, I awoke from peaceful slumber and realized I was still in a comped luxury suite at Steve Wynn’s Encore hotel. I have no idea why I was wide awake.  This was the 3rd night of our stay and I still had almost all of my winnings.  My wife was sound asleep and the usual obnoxious noises of drunken manly mancationers belching their brilliance in the hallways was not the stuff of the Encore. I tried to sleep, but no dreams were forthcoming.  I don’t know why but I switched on the 42 inch high def TV and lowered the volume.  There I saw Mike Davis, “a former mat cutter and long haul truck driver who now teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside”, talking to Bill Moyers.  Among many other things, Mr. Davis posed the question, “When are we going to begin talking about real fundamental change?”.  The show ended, leaving my brain totally charged and urging me to do something.  So I changed into my jeans, gathered my change from the dresser, and went down to the casino to seek my fortune.  Three hours later I returned, with a keen understanding of a particlular roulette wheel and an additional 257 dollars (not the fortune I sought but a worthwhile sum for the 20 dollars risked).

Knights Time:
Also during this same trip, I had the good fortune to meet Bob Knight.  After 3 years at Indiana University in the early 70s, I never once even had the opportunity to be in the same stadium with the man.  In the 80s and 90s, I was able to get to a couple of IU’s NCAA tournament games, but St Robert was always observed from a considerable distance.  Then suddenly Melinda said to me, “there’s Bob Knight” and not 10 feet from my seat at the Wynn Cafe was the man himself.  I left my seat and stood patiently near him while he finished his conversation with a friend.  He turned and looked right at me as I said, “Excuse me coach, I don’t mean to interrupt.  I went to school with Quinn Buckner, Tom Abernathy and other members of your 1975 sqaud and I just wanted to thank you for giving us those memories.”  Bob Knight smiled at me, shook my hand and said, “You’re very welcome”.  He wanted to say something else, but I don’t think he knew what to say.  So I said, “Well, I’ll give you back your privacy” and walked away as he replied with a very sincere, “Well, thank you!”.   I saw  Robert Montgomery Knight three more times over the course of the weekend and each time I thought to myself, “Bob’s really feeling his age”.

Bucking: The Trend
Finally, I came home to the arrival of three books I had ordered, by Buckminster Fuller:
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,
Utopia or Oblivion, and
And it Came to Pass – Not to Stay
There is an introduction from his grandson in each of the books indicating,
Bucky always began by reflecting on
“What is the most important thing WE can be thinking about right now?”

So I started thinking about what I SHOULD be doing for my encore.