Tag: #Hope

  • Brackets: Go with a #11 Team

    The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starts today, and this will be the only time this year when I will care about college basketball. I have nothing against the sport of basketball. You could say that basketball is my family’s sport, being that we all played it growing up. My brother is a basketball coach and so is his son, and when the whole family gets together, we end up talking basketball; pro, college, high school.

    What I do enjoy is the drama of competition. I like watching underdogs, on a big huge national stage, upsetting powerhouse teams. There is something so completely satisfying and life affirming in watching a team made up of players that have been dismissed and underestimated, dig deep and do something no one thought was possible. It gives you hope, you know.

    And that is also why I am so utterly awful at making a bracket for the tournament. I’ve done three this year, each with a different champion; Arizona, Kansas, and Gonzaga. I’m not stupid, I know one of the Big Teams will win the tournament. But if you look at my predictions, I have an overwhelming preference for lower seeded teams. I’m picking Colgate over Texas. Why? Because I want to see that small school slay a giant. Because I want to see that Colgate team celebrate on the court like they just won the whole thing! That belief, hard work, and luck can converge and something amazing can happen.

    And for that reason, my brackets always sucked. I used to make a bracket at every office I worked at, and there always some guy who took the whole thing way too seriously, and would make fun of my completely bonker predictions. But every so often I’d get a pick like VCU or Loyola Chicago right. And that feeling of proving that guy wrong and watching his bracket explode in his face; it was like Christmas morning and my birthday wrapped in one!

  • SPORTS

    I just want to get this out of the way; it really rubs me the wrong way when “artists” hate on sports. From making a Mitt Romney type joke – “I like sport,” – to the playing dumb – “I hope our team makes more homeruns then the other team,” – to outright hostility – “A bunch of dumb jocks, and your dumb for liking it!” I know some of it comes from the fact that most “artists” went to schools where the arts were pitted against sports, and that resentment never went away.

    I come from a very competitive family, and my dad had a rule which was that we had to play a sport or have a physical activity until 16. After that age, we could do whatever. I played team sports up to seventh grade, mainly basketball and baseball, but that’s when it became very clear I didn’t have to coordination, nor the killer instinct, that was needed to be successful an athletics. For the next two years, I took tennis lessons, and I was pretty good, but it wasn’t anything that I had a passion for. It was just fun. Anyway, by the time I was 16, I was theatre nerd, and in a sense, I was part of a different team sport.

    When it came to watching sports growing up, I always found it pretty boring. But as I get older, I seem to find myself reminiscing on fond memories of being around my dad, and sports being on the tv. During summers breaks, Wimbledon would be on NBC, and I remember watching that with the old man. And March Madness, that was one that he looked forward to. And when the Cowboys were really good in the 90’s, that was another moment when we would watch Troy, Emmitt, Michael, Jay, Moose, and Alvin.

    And then there was my grandfather and his never-ending faith in the CUBS, while watching them on WGN.

    The other thing I find true about myself is that I like sports because it can tell a dramatic story; Underdog and GOAT, rookie and veteran, superstar and utility player. You have to believe that your team can win, and complain about the owners.

    Anyway… sports.

  • Ah, man… The Knicks

    All things must come to an end.

    And the Knicks were eliminated from the playoffs last night by Atlanta.

    I shouldn’t pick on them. The Knicks did a lot better than so many people thought, including myself. It was fun to have faith, and some hope, in a group of people you want to see succeed. I kept hoping they would find a way to break out of the first round. Just a little faith was needed so that they would find a way.

    See, my family is from Illinois, just south of Chicago. We have been Cubs fans since pretty much the beginning of the team. Following a team that has no real chance is how I was raised. I’m suspicious of teams, and people for that matter, who succeed all the time. (I never was a fan of the Bulls for that reason.) There was an indescribable joy I experienced when the Cubs won IT in 2016.

    And, being that they haven’t been back, sort of makes me think the Universe has returned to normal.

    To me, no team is on top forever, and to a certain degree, neither is a person.

    That sounds a bit darker than I wanted…

    I guess what I am trying to say is that I enjoyed the Knicks’ struggle this year, I enjoyed them making the playoffs, and winning a playoff game. I hope they can do better next year, and maybe the will.

    Not that I’m becoming a Knicks fan.

  • Wait, Is It Spring?

    Wait, Is It Spring?

    It will be sixty degrees in New York City today, and the kid is over the moon to get out to the park and just play! We had a fifty degree day about a week ago, but it was a little cloudy and windy, and it didn’t count. I say that because, it is a blue sky today, and it’s March, and it is just enough of a tease that will make you think this is the start of Spring!

    I know it’s not, because we have had a snow storm in April, so at any moment this early Spring can crumple back into Winter.

    I love this day because people will be out! Out and sweating in their Winter coats and scarves. And then there will be the people who will treat this day as if it’s eighty degrees, with tee-shirts and shorts on.

    I always find it amazing that this Spring preview always seems to find a way to happen right at the moment that I start thinking in my head, “You know, I’m looking forward to Spring. And Summer isn’t that bad, either.” The Spring preview hits, and then my thoughts change to, “Yeah, I need it to be Spring. I can’t take Winter anymore.”

    Also, maybe, just maybe, there just might be a little hope along with this Spring as well.

  • Stay at Home Parent; Gotta Have Goals

    I have been doing the stay at home parent thing since June, which means that I have logged nearly nine months of this. Last night, the wife and I had a conversation about the next six months, and what that means for the kid’s schooling, home life, and our roles in it. The decision we made, even if the kid gets back into school full time, is that I will continue to be a stay at home parent, and not look for a job. Things may change in September, but for now, this will be my role for the family.

    I also know very well that planning in this pandemic is foolish, as there is a very high probability that what we are setting ourselves up for is disappointment. Hoping that the future will be better was the philosophical status quo a year ago, but now that thought seems fraught with disaster. I’m not ready to give up hope just yet, and I really don’t want to set that example for my daughter.

    My grandmother used to always say to us, “You gotta have goals.” I used to think that was something that people in retirement would say, to give their day purpose. Now I see that it is a mantra for mental survival. If you don’t have something to work towards, then it’s hard to get up in the morning.

    The wife will be the one who works, brings in our income, and provides our insurance. I will manage the home, the kid’s schooling, and all the other tasks in our daily life. That’s the deal. We will reexamine this situation when we hit June to make sure it still works for us.

    And there is one other thing; I need to stop calling this the “new normal” and just call it normal.