Pepper McSausage Picks

A pick a day until my mom comes back to life.

Happy Halloween! Who needs to carve pumpkins when you can bank on sand castles! Stephon Castle hit’s his over shortly into the third quarter, so not much of a sweat. Thank god!

My mom believed in god. She never read the bible or anything, but she had faith. I’m not sure how much she truly believed in it though…her mom (my grandma) believed, though again I’m not sure if she ever did much in the way of bible study. Her belief felt strong though; my mom’s however felt like nothing more than a belief in something, a hope perhaps. Very similar to the belief someone would have in a bet, but in gambling you know there’s no sure things… I’m glad she had something, but I’m not convinced she ever actually felt solace in that hope of an afterlife. My grandma did, that was evident, and when she died, I believed she believed she was going to a better place. My mom’s situation is much more complicated. Granted, my mom died in a flash, so she didn’t have the time or need to truly contemplate the value of god and her spirituality. A shame.

My mom’s man was highly religious (in a way where he actually read the bible and stands by its principles) and he pushed that onto my mom, and so she adopted it. How much was to appease and how much was to believe I’ll never know. My mom tended to adopt the personality of her man, she was never one to build a strong foundation of self. And that makes me really sad. Each man (and there were many) felt like a new painting that my mom could add little details to, but was, all the while, something already whole to stare at and bring her peace. I always wanted my mom to have a semblance of identity outside of her man, or me and my brother, or her escapist reality shows. But then she died. And I sit here hoping that her man’s gospel resonated with her deeply enough to create some sort of real belief. Not just some talking point that she could relay to suggest a sense of autonomy.

Today’s pick: JALEN JOHNSON OVER 8.5 REBOUNDS

He hasn’t hit once this year. And yet Vegas is still putting his line here. And initially people were betting his under. Casuals scrolling across his page seeing he hasn’t been hitting… Well, today is the first slate of NBA cup games, teams have “something” to play for. And the pacers should create a lot of opportunities off missed shots; they’re currently allow one of the highest rates of highest rebounds against in the league. And I’m not sure how, when looking at the team’s injury report right now, that’s expected to change.

Good luck and, as always, I will see you on the other side!

Pick record: 2-1 (thank you Stephon!)