Why am I a Kansas City Chiefs Fan?

I am pretty open with the fact that I am a big fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, and that is saying something considering they have been dreadful for the past two decades.  People often ask though how somebody that didn't grow up in Kansas City and has never even visited Kansas City could become a fan of the Chiefs.  Well to answer that question I am going to have to take you back to Colombia Elementary School.

It was a cold rainy day outside and as a child in elementary school this was seriously bad news!  This meant no recess!  Instead, during recess time we were trapped inside like lab rats, left to play the same old board games which were missing half their pieces.  Looking back on it now I realize that the teachers must have dreaded inside recess as much as we kids did.   I still remember Ms. Durrant telling us our options and how much fun we could still have inside. Ms. Durrant was my 2nd grade crush.  I was certain the two of us would have beautiful children someday.  I didn't quite realize she would be like 50 by the time I was marriage ready. So Ms. Durrant if you are still out there and available, I am not taken.....

Even as a child I was fascinated by random facts and learning about things nobody else seemed to care about.  During this particular indoor recess I sat down with a torn copy of the Guinness Book of World Records.  I read through its pages excitedly as if someone had just spouted divine wisdom from the heavens.  The world's fattest man, the largest pizza, and so on.  Eventually I came across the sports section of the book where it listed the records in each of the sports.  I remember reading the stat, "Most Sacks in an NFL Game: Derrick Thomas 7 sacks vs. Seattle".  I thought that was amazing even though my knowledge of the game was very limited at the time.  In my mind Derrick Thomas who was an outside linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs (R.I.P) suddenly became superman!  I began to watch Chiefs games to see him play.  When he died in 2000 at the age of 33 following a car crash which he caused, I remember being so confused why people are taken way too early.  Following his death I was already hooked on the Chiefs and continued to watch and cheer for them.  To almost an unhealthy level at this stage in life.  haha!

So that is how an indoor recess period turned a love struck 2nd grader into a raving Chiefs fan. :)  Feel free to leave comment and tell me how you became a fan of your favorite team regardless of sport.  Thanks for reading!

I am important! Right?

“A man said to the universe: 'Sir, I exist!' 
'However,' replied the universe. 
'The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.” 
― Stephen Crane, War Is Kind and Other Poems

At 6:30 in the morning your alarm goes off.  You crawl slowly out of bed all the while thinking how much you would rather still be in it.   Your mind begins to ponder the scheduled day ahead.  The drive through dreadful traffic, the big lunch meeting with a new client, picking up the kids from school, and even what you might eat for your meals.  During your pondering you have sheerly out of habit showered, chosen clothing, brushed your teeth, and combed your hair.  Throughout your busy day you interact with dozens of relations in person, and hundreds more when taking social media into account.  These interactions produce a variety of emotions and thoughts that couldn't possibly be counted.  The experiences, thoughts and emotions continue until you once again crawl back into your bed to start the cycle all over again.

Our lives as human beings are a wonder of cellular, pyschological and social complexity.  So much so that with a recent world population estimate of nearly 7.1 billion, it seems unfathomable that each of those people has a life just as full of thoughts, emotions and relationships as complex if not more so than my own.  Suddenly my important life seems a little less important.

Now let's take a step back and observe from a different angle.  I am talking a step waaaaaaay back!  7.1Billion human beings live on the planet we call earth along with many other forms of life.  Our planet is huge yet according to http://solarsystemfacts.net/sun-facts.html we could place the earth inside our sun over 1,300,000 times!  The distances in space are equally as immense and seriously hard for my feeble brain to comprehend.  For example the nearest star to our own is called Proxima Centauri.  This star is located about 4.2 light years away from the sun.  In other words the distance that light can travel in the span of 4.2 years.  Light travels fast folks, like 299,792,458 meters per second fast!  If we launched our fastest spacecraft from earth tomorrow it would arrive in about 50,000 years.  I will be dead by then. :) Our solar system is a tiny dot in the milky way galaxy and and our galaxy is a tiny dot in the scope of the entire universe. I don't need to keep rambling off random facts about space distances as I think by now you can see that space is incredibly immense and is governed by many many physical forces which keep everything neatly in place.

So does my tiny life really matter in the grand scope of the universe?  If space is a giant vast wasteland with no other form of life, then you better believe my life matters.  If space however is full of life and even higher life forms than our own, then our importance could be highly debatable.  Whether life exists out there is quite another topic in itself which I will give opinion on another time.

Your life is now complete!

Your life is now complete!  You are reading a blog by Brett Gardner!  No, not the Yankees baseball player, rather the bald car washing guy from West Jordan Utah.  But in all seriousness thank you for taking the time to read my new blog.

 The purpose of this blog isn't to give you a play by play of my daily adventures (as my life is incredibly boring), but rather to share random thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics ranging from sports to outer space (hence the blog name).  Some may be humorous and others hopefully will inspire deeper thought and healthy debate.  Then again some may be complete and utter nonsense.

I am not a writer, but I did see an episode of Murphy Brown once as a child.  Thus I feel qualified to create this blog.  Let's get this party started!