{"id":18191,"date":"2022-12-04T20:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T02:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=18191"},"modified":"2022-12-04T19:02:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T01:02:15","slug":"lights-out-ode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/18191","title":{"rendered":"Lights Out Ode"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fireworks garnet the cold fall night<br \/>\n&amp; fans storm the streets of Philadelphia<br \/>\nwith flares and airhorns\u2014it\u2019s the first<br \/>\nWorld Series win in almost three decades<br \/>\n&amp; Brad \u201cLights Out\u201d Lidge kneels on the mound<br \/>\nafter the final out of his perfect-save season<br \/>\nwhile I jump around my living room carpet<br \/>\nwearing my official on-field cap<br \/>\n&amp; holler like I\u2019ve made it into heaven\u2014<br \/>\nI\u2019m fourteen, about to start high school<br \/>\nafter a big move up north<br \/>\nbecause of my parents \u2019 lengthy divorce,<br \/>\n&amp; I\u2019m holding my own tryouts daily<br \/>\nfor a new male role model, &amp; since Lidge<br \/>\nis both an athlete and a Catholic, he\u2019s in<br \/>\nbeside my old neighbor John who taught me<br \/>\nhow to grip a golf club and also stood in<br \/>\nas sponsor for my recent Confirmation,<br \/>\nitself a lights-out miracle since that night<br \/>\na thunderstorm hewed the night jade<br \/>\n&amp; the lights in the church gave out,<br \/>\nleaving the bishop a blue electric ghost<br \/>\nholding his battery-lit neon candle<br \/>\nas we filed down the aisle to meet<br \/>\nhis oiled thumb on our foreheads,<br \/>\nour long line so shadowed I could barely<br \/>\nmake out Alex\u2019s skirt-line in front of me,<br \/>\nthough I would have given my share<br \/>\nof the Holy Spirit to have a dark little<br \/>\nconfessional off to the side with her,<br \/>\nbut again I was fourteen so I never told her this,<br \/>\n&amp; if it\u2019s just God\u2019s style to shadow<br \/>\na big moment like this, to send His wind<br \/>\nand His water, startle and serenade<br \/>\non stained-glass scenes of His life, so too<br \/>\nwas it just like Him that as the bishop raised<br \/>\nthe host in the air and said <em>do this<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>in remembrance of me,<\/em> right then<br \/>\nthe light returned, breaking first<br \/>\nabove the polished brass Tabernacle,<br \/>\nthen filling the whole sanctuary,<br \/>\nfilling even me, so in need those days<br \/>\nof a win, of something I couldn\u2019t believe,<br \/>\nsomething to get down on my knees for<br \/>\nand look up at the sky and breathe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=18159\">T. Dallas Saylor<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fireworks garnet the cold fall night &amp; fans storm the streets of Philadelphia with flares and airhorns\u2014it\u2019s the first World Series win in almost three decades &amp; Brad \u201cLights Out\u201d Lidge kneels on the mound after the final out of his perfect-save season while I jump around my living room carpet wearing my official on-field [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[75],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4Jp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18192,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191\/revisions\/18192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}