Exits: The weather where you are
This Cavs team has been together for two seasons, but still isn't quite sure where they should be.
When my brother moved to Japan I added NHK News to the morning rundown I croak for the little smart speaker to give me as I make coffee, and lately, check on the flowers and herbs in the pots and planter boxes on the balcony. While I wait to wake up I listen to the news from a day that’s already happened and feel closer to my family. It’s how I learned about the Noto earthquake on New Year’s Day, and how I heard about the Kochi Flower Arrangement Festival that I told my parents, in Kochi at the time, to go to.
The NHK portion of the news roundup is always the longest, on weekends it can run 20 minutes to the other networks’ comparatively brief three to five. There are the usual global headlines, followed by in-depth coverage of news across Asia, followed by national and then local Japanese news. There are occasional recurring segments, like ‘A Brief History of Japanese Landmarks’, there is always a weather report.
When I heard the weather report for the first time I was confused as to why it was giving me the latest in the skies over Iowa. I thought maybe it was geo-targeted to North American listeners. The next time, it focused on a storm system rolling over Madagascar, followed by a dip in temperatures for Southern France. What I’ve learned and look forward to is that the NHK weather report, for reasons that are likely what happens to be highlighted on the most recent televised news update that’s then clipped for digital feed aggregation, very rarely, if ever, has to do with the weather where I am. It’s a roving, auditory exploration, with the enthusiastic broadcaster cramming huge swaths of geography in reports that zoom in, out, then way back in with one breath (“From Zacatecas through the Rockies, and up to Red Deer”). Even if I wasn’t a keener for weather, there would be something quietly and briefly exhilarating about knowing what’s headed Seychelles way, or that Andalusians can look forward to rain.
A report came out recently that said the Cavaliers “don’t appear very motivated” to trade Donovan Mitchell, as well as Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. To which I wonder, did we need a report? That’s basically the team.
What stuck out to me, in the way a misplaced set of keys appearing out of the blue will bring with them a settling sense of clarity, is that motivation is a good word to use for the latter half of the Cavs season — the absence of it.
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