File under Cage the Rage
Although it seems intuitive now, even up to 16 years ago many researchers and doctors regarded the concept of one's mind affecting one's immune system as bunk, even 'folklore'.
But the work of Dr. Robert Adair, beginning in the mid-1970's, changed all of that. He defined the connections that linked the neurons of the central nervous system to the cells of the immune system. Today it's widely accepted "that meditation helps reduce arterial plaque; that social bonds improve cancer survival; that people under stress catch more colds." He definitively showed that not only does worrying not get you anywhere, but it is also deleterious to your health.
Dr. Adair passed away this week but the importance of his work remains. In honor of his discoveries, the perfect antidote encourages everyone to question what it is you are stressed about. Is it worth your health?
Here is a link to a memorial article for Dr. Adair.
Song of the Day
I've been wanting to feature this song for a while, but never really had a reason too. Not that i do now though. In honor of not getting any mail today the song of the day is The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights".
Showing posts with label Cage the Rage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cage the Rage. Show all posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
The Christmas Spirit
File under Joy
I love Christmas. I love Christmas eve. I love Christmas morning. I love how peaceful, how quiet, and how joyous it is. I love seeing my niece and nephew, and talking to friends and family. I love the desire to be selfless and put others first. They are all feelings i wish i felt all year long, but by January 2nd the world and it's demands slowly win back the day. Work, kids, school, parents, building a legacy, having an impact, changing the world. All of those things muddle the picture of what is important.
Advocating procrastination and the lowering of expectations isn't the most common advice. In fact you'll typically hear just the opposite. I've been asked about the 'perfect' antidote theory before - "You don't really believe that do you?" Well the truth is that i couldn't be more serious or passionate about this philosophy, and it's value is most inherently evident around the holiday time. Somehow we take a break, somehow we make time, somehow we figure out what is truly important to us. We share, we spend time with family and friends, we give of ourselves. We look forward with eager anticipation to the season and then lament that it went too quickly.
Did it go too quickly, or did we too easily just revert back to our busy lives of worrying and focusing on things that aren't important?
As the holiday passes and the spirit fades, i have but one wish for this next year. Instead of trying to do too much, to be too perfect, or to change the whole world...i'm just going to try to change someone's world.
I hope you have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Song of the Day
In honor of not letting our lives pass by each other in absent indifference, the song of the day is 10,000 Maniacs' "Verdi Cries" performed by Natalie Merchant.
I love Christmas. I love Christmas eve. I love Christmas morning. I love how peaceful, how quiet, and how joyous it is. I love seeing my niece and nephew, and talking to friends and family. I love the desire to be selfless and put others first. They are all feelings i wish i felt all year long, but by January 2nd the world and it's demands slowly win back the day. Work, kids, school, parents, building a legacy, having an impact, changing the world. All of those things muddle the picture of what is important.
Advocating procrastination and the lowering of expectations isn't the most common advice. In fact you'll typically hear just the opposite. I've been asked about the 'perfect' antidote theory before - "You don't really believe that do you?" Well the truth is that i couldn't be more serious or passionate about this philosophy, and it's value is most inherently evident around the holiday time. Somehow we take a break, somehow we make time, somehow we figure out what is truly important to us. We share, we spend time with family and friends, we give of ourselves. We look forward with eager anticipation to the season and then lament that it went too quickly.
Did it go too quickly, or did we too easily just revert back to our busy lives of worrying and focusing on things that aren't important?
As the holiday passes and the spirit fades, i have but one wish for this next year. Instead of trying to do too much, to be too perfect, or to change the whole world...i'm just going to try to change someone's world.
I hope you have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Song of the Day
In honor of not letting our lives pass by each other in absent indifference, the song of the day is 10,000 Maniacs' "Verdi Cries" performed by Natalie Merchant.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Po-Po
File under Cage the Rage
I was driving home from DC the other day and it was rush hour so needless to say there was a lot of traffic. Well about halfway through the trip as i was moving no more than 10 miles an hour, a small, suped-up mazda with an over-exaggerated spoiler came up weaving in and out of the traffic behind me and making his way to the shoulder. Once clear of other cars on the shoulder he took off ahead and disappeared into the mass of taillights in front of me. "Where were the police when you needed them," i thought.
Well not 5 minutes later I saw flashing lights up ahead, and as i inched closer my hopes and dreams were confirmed. The little emasculated mazda had been pulled over by a Maryland State Trooper. I couldn't have been happier that karma paid him a visit.
It's a weird emotion though. He had no effect on whether i got home sooner, yet i couldn't help but slow down, look in his direction, and smile as i passed. As if to say, "that's what you get for breaking the rules." But it wasn't the rule breaking i was initially upset about. It was that he was gaining an advantage over me and that didn't sit well. It's that feeling that drives a lot of our resentment when we feel others are gaining an advantage, even if it has no effect on our endstate. Watch out for that being a destructive emotion. Regardless, and i'm not sure why, there's satisfaction in justice, which brings us to the song of the day.
Song of the Day
In honor of getting what you deserve, the song of the day is Radiohead's "Karma Police".
I was driving home from DC the other day and it was rush hour so needless to say there was a lot of traffic. Well about halfway through the trip as i was moving no more than 10 miles an hour, a small, suped-up mazda with an over-exaggerated spoiler came up weaving in and out of the traffic behind me and making his way to the shoulder. Once clear of other cars on the shoulder he took off ahead and disappeared into the mass of taillights in front of me. "Where were the police when you needed them," i thought.
Well not 5 minutes later I saw flashing lights up ahead, and as i inched closer my hopes and dreams were confirmed. The little emasculated mazda had been pulled over by a Maryland State Trooper. I couldn't have been happier that karma paid him a visit.
It's a weird emotion though. He had no effect on whether i got home sooner, yet i couldn't help but slow down, look in his direction, and smile as i passed. As if to say, "that's what you get for breaking the rules." But it wasn't the rule breaking i was initially upset about. It was that he was gaining an advantage over me and that didn't sit well. It's that feeling that drives a lot of our resentment when we feel others are gaining an advantage, even if it has no effect on our endstate. Watch out for that being a destructive emotion. Regardless, and i'm not sure why, there's satisfaction in justice, which brings us to the song of the day.
Song of the Day
In honor of getting what you deserve, the song of the day is Radiohead's "Karma Police".
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Flooded Basement
File under Cage the Rage
It’s been a rough week and a half for us. So much so that at one low point we commented that this was the worst week of our married lives. There was one “disaster” after another. We recently moved into a new house, but still haven’t sold our current home so that compounded things. As Hurricane Irene rolled through we discovered we had a leak in our basement. There already being a lot of things that need to be upgraded in this ‘new-to-us' old house, this was extremely frustrating. Waking up every few hours to shop-vac up water left our nerves on edge. Just as we thought we had things under control and the place cleaned up from Irene, Lee decided to pay a visit. But as the rains began, our water heater decided not to be left out of the fray and it rusted out. It leaked water into our recently cleaned up basement over Labor Day weekend, ensuring we would live up to the name of the holiday. Try finding a plumber over Labor Day following a hurricane, before another tropical system. So we lived without hot water for 5 days. Showering at others’ houses or braving the cold when we didn’t have the energy to drive anywhere.
And then Lee dumped on us. As we proactively managed the flooding in our new house, we discovered our sump pump went out in our old house. We worked to exchange a sump pump while under 3 inches of water. After an all-day affair we went back home with the minor victory of a working pump and a “dry” basement. But the rains continued and we got home only to find that Lee found new and innovative ways to find our basement.
It was a miserable ten days. We couldn’t catch a break, and we couldn’t make any progress on the things we had planned to do. But the truth is that our reaction to those events, and calling it the ‘worst week ever’ couldn’t have been more wrong.
It wasn’t until one trip back from checking on the house with the broken sump pump, that things were finally put in perspective. My wife and I both passed by a house in our neighborhood where a tree was knocked down during Irene. It destroyed the back of the house so badly the house was condemned. That family lost their home. We have no idea where they went, or how they were doing, but one thing we did know was that a few inches of water in our basement was not such a big deal.
So what was it in our self-sympathizing not five minutes earlier that led us to such ridiculous superlatives as “the worst week ever,” and honestly believing it? A frustration of not getting what we want? A feeling of “why me” victimization? A weird need to be more “affected” than others are? Well it’s probably all of those things, but most importantly, those exclamations are a result of a temporary lack of perspective - an inability to see the forest from the trees.
Perspective is an equalizer. It puts everything on an even level. You can compare apples to apples.
But perspective doesn’t just come from being exposed to those worse off than you. It’s not gained by saying “Wow, sucks for that guy” just to make yourself feel better. Sometimes it comes with age and experience. In fact, isn’t wisdom a reflection of perspective?
However perspective can also be manufactured through the simple act of asking yourself two questions:
- what is the true impact of this event?
- is my reaction appropriate to that impact?
We had flooded basements. We spent money on repairs. I had to take a day off of work. We lost a productive weekend. I couldn’t sit on the couch and watch all the football games I wanted.
Those were the true impacts, and yet my reaction was if a tree fell on my house. And that made things worse. That taxed our emotions. And that got us more frustrated.
Not that things aren’t hard, or frustrating, or maddening sometimes, because they are. But the true impact of bad things that happen are compounded when we exaggerate the effects.
As we sat this past weekend on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, watching the coverage, remembering where we were that day, and thinking of those families who lost loved ones, I’m reminded of perspective. I’m reminded of sacrifice. And I’m reminded what is really worth being emotionally affected by.
It’s not some water in the basement.
Song of the Day
In honor of the 2,976 people who are a reminder of perspective, the song of the day is ‘Taps’.
It’s been a rough week and a half for us. So much so that at one low point we commented that this was the worst week of our married lives. There was one “disaster” after another. We recently moved into a new house, but still haven’t sold our current home so that compounded things. As Hurricane Irene rolled through we discovered we had a leak in our basement. There already being a lot of things that need to be upgraded in this ‘new-to-us' old house, this was extremely frustrating. Waking up every few hours to shop-vac up water left our nerves on edge. Just as we thought we had things under control and the place cleaned up from Irene, Lee decided to pay a visit. But as the rains began, our water heater decided not to be left out of the fray and it rusted out. It leaked water into our recently cleaned up basement over Labor Day weekend, ensuring we would live up to the name of the holiday. Try finding a plumber over Labor Day following a hurricane, before another tropical system. So we lived without hot water for 5 days. Showering at others’ houses or braving the cold when we didn’t have the energy to drive anywhere.
And then Lee dumped on us. As we proactively managed the flooding in our new house, we discovered our sump pump went out in our old house. We worked to exchange a sump pump while under 3 inches of water. After an all-day affair we went back home with the minor victory of a working pump and a “dry” basement. But the rains continued and we got home only to find that Lee found new and innovative ways to find our basement.
It was a miserable ten days. We couldn’t catch a break, and we couldn’t make any progress on the things we had planned to do. But the truth is that our reaction to those events, and calling it the ‘worst week ever’ couldn’t have been more wrong.
It wasn’t until one trip back from checking on the house with the broken sump pump, that things were finally put in perspective. My wife and I both passed by a house in our neighborhood where a tree was knocked down during Irene. It destroyed the back of the house so badly the house was condemned. That family lost their home. We have no idea where they went, or how they were doing, but one thing we did know was that a few inches of water in our basement was not such a big deal.
So what was it in our self-sympathizing not five minutes earlier that led us to such ridiculous superlatives as “the worst week ever,” and honestly believing it? A frustration of not getting what we want? A feeling of “why me” victimization? A weird need to be more “affected” than others are? Well it’s probably all of those things, but most importantly, those exclamations are a result of a temporary lack of perspective - an inability to see the forest from the trees.
Perspective is an equalizer. It puts everything on an even level. You can compare apples to apples.
But perspective doesn’t just come from being exposed to those worse off than you. It’s not gained by saying “Wow, sucks for that guy” just to make yourself feel better. Sometimes it comes with age and experience. In fact, isn’t wisdom a reflection of perspective?
However perspective can also be manufactured through the simple act of asking yourself two questions:
- what is the true impact of this event?
- is my reaction appropriate to that impact?
We had flooded basements. We spent money on repairs. I had to take a day off of work. We lost a productive weekend. I couldn’t sit on the couch and watch all the football games I wanted.
Those were the true impacts, and yet my reaction was if a tree fell on my house. And that made things worse. That taxed our emotions. And that got us more frustrated.
Not that things aren’t hard, or frustrating, or maddening sometimes, because they are. But the true impact of bad things that happen are compounded when we exaggerate the effects.
As we sat this past weekend on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, watching the coverage, remembering where we were that day, and thinking of those families who lost loved ones, I’m reminded of perspective. I’m reminded of sacrifice. And I’m reminded what is really worth being emotionally affected by.
It’s not some water in the basement.
Song of the Day
In honor of the 2,976 people who are a reminder of perspective, the song of the day is ‘Taps’.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The MTV
File under Cage the Rage
Thirty years ago this week a fledgling television network debuted on the relatively new ‘cable’ television. At 12:01 a.m. on August 1st, 1981, as the channel went live, the world heard, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll.”
And MTV was born.
Ok, when I say ‘the world’, I actually mean less than a million viewers in New Jersey, and that’s it. MTV began with less than auspicious viewership, but within a couple of years tens of millions of kids, including me, were saying to their parents “I want my MTV.”
Now certainly MTV had a big impact on society, whether good or bad (definitely a little of both). But that’s not what I find interesting. What I do find interesting is our reaction to the evolution of MTV over time and how that reaction is similar to other evolutions in our lives and work.
In those initial years MTV aired music videos, and served as a vehicle for this new art form, launching new stars like Madonna and Michael Jackson (sans the other 4 (good move by the way)). But somewhere in the mid to late 80’s the brass at the top of the network sensed a paradigm shift. They were no longer the window on the pop music scene, they were one of the drivers. They achieved any marketer’s dream – they became an ‘idea’ instead of just a product. With this realization MTV branched into new unchartered territories.
For those that grew up with the music videos, there was a slow but noticeable move away from the medium and into original programming. And for the Gen Xers who were there from the beginning, this was disturbing. This wasn’t their MTV anymore, it was some bastardized version, epitomized by my sister’s comment somewhere around 1994, “Remember when MTV actually played music?!” By that point there was Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV News, the game show Remote Control, and the coup-de-gras: The Real World. NOBODY realized just what that show would do to mass entertainment. It ushered in the death of the traditional sitcom and resulted in me caring about C-List celebrities’ ability to Tango, all in one fell swoop.
The transition did not go over well for many. We belly-ached about the awful programming and what MTV had ‘devolved’ into. As if the previous state of music video after music video, ad nauseum, was socially redeemable. If you look at the Millennials to follow us, they only knew what MTV had become. That was their reality and they owned it. As MTV continues to evolve they will long for the good old days when the network actually aired reality shows. Likewise the baby boomers before us dismissed the entire concept of the station because it didn’t fit their experiences.
That is a microcosm of what happens to us daily in work and our lives. Our reality changes and we no longer ‘own’ it. We long for the ways things used to be. And most destructively we label what’s new as ‘bad’. Change is not inherently good or bad. Change is change. Change is different. But most of all, change is inevitable. And to be emotionally tied to the previous state, to say that ‘then’ was ‘good’ and ‘now’ is ‘bad’ is wasteful, demoralizing to others around you, and a taxation on your emotional effort.
This isn’t a prompting to turn lemons into lemonade, or for you to go read “Who Moved My Cheese”, but it is a caution to not dismiss an idea, or a process, or The Jersey Shore, just because they’re different.
Because different does not equal bad.
Actually, you can dismiss The Jersey Shore.
Song of the Day
In honor of the first video ever played on MTV, the song of the day is The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star".
Thirty years ago this week a fledgling television network debuted on the relatively new ‘cable’ television. At 12:01 a.m. on August 1st, 1981, as the channel went live, the world heard, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll.”
And MTV was born.
 |
| Source |
Now certainly MTV had a big impact on society, whether good or bad (definitely a little of both). But that’s not what I find interesting. What I do find interesting is our reaction to the evolution of MTV over time and how that reaction is similar to other evolutions in our lives and work.
In those initial years MTV aired music videos, and served as a vehicle for this new art form, launching new stars like Madonna and Michael Jackson (sans the other 4 (good move by the way)). But somewhere in the mid to late 80’s the brass at the top of the network sensed a paradigm shift. They were no longer the window on the pop music scene, they were one of the drivers. They achieved any marketer’s dream – they became an ‘idea’ instead of just a product. With this realization MTV branched into new unchartered territories.
For those that grew up with the music videos, there was a slow but noticeable move away from the medium and into original programming. And for the Gen Xers who were there from the beginning, this was disturbing. This wasn’t their MTV anymore, it was some bastardized version, epitomized by my sister’s comment somewhere around 1994, “Remember when MTV actually played music?!” By that point there was Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV News, the game show Remote Control, and the coup-de-gras: The Real World. NOBODY realized just what that show would do to mass entertainment. It ushered in the death of the traditional sitcom and resulted in me caring about C-List celebrities’ ability to Tango, all in one fell swoop.
The transition did not go over well for many. We belly-ached about the awful programming and what MTV had ‘devolved’ into. As if the previous state of music video after music video, ad nauseum, was socially redeemable. If you look at the Millennials to follow us, they only knew what MTV had become. That was their reality and they owned it. As MTV continues to evolve they will long for the good old days when the network actually aired reality shows. Likewise the baby boomers before us dismissed the entire concept of the station because it didn’t fit their experiences.
That is a microcosm of what happens to us daily in work and our lives. Our reality changes and we no longer ‘own’ it. We long for the ways things used to be. And most destructively we label what’s new as ‘bad’. Change is not inherently good or bad. Change is change. Change is different. But most of all, change is inevitable. And to be emotionally tied to the previous state, to say that ‘then’ was ‘good’ and ‘now’ is ‘bad’ is wasteful, demoralizing to others around you, and a taxation on your emotional effort.
This isn’t a prompting to turn lemons into lemonade, or for you to go read “Who Moved My Cheese”, but it is a caution to not dismiss an idea, or a process, or The Jersey Shore, just because they’re different.
Because different does not equal bad.
Actually, you can dismiss The Jersey Shore.
Song of the Day
In honor of the first video ever played on MTV, the song of the day is The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star".
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The n of 1
File under Cage the Rage
Several years ago I heard a song on the radio by a band called Len. The song was “Steal my Sunshine.” I was instantly amazed by the song and literally rushed out that afternoon to go buy the CD, thinking these guys were geniuses and I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of their masterpiece. That album was a ‘piece’ alright. “Steal my Sunshine” was really the only listenable song on the entire album, and that purchase was, quite possibly, the worst $13.99 I’ve ever spent. I spent 14 bucks for one song.
I felt foolish for succumbing to the n of 1.
In statistical terms, n is the size of the sample set. For example if you flip a coin 5 times, n = 5. As I mentioned in the last post, the larger the sample set, the better off you are in being able to make decisions.
In the case of that album, if I had heard one more song, I would have pocketed the money for something better. To be honest, it wasn’t the first or the last time I made that mistake, it was just the worst.
The problem is we do that for other as well things. We rely on one recommendation, we see one cause, we see one outcome, or we have one experience. Those things influence who we do or don’t date, what purchases we make, what school we go to or job we take, or our opinions of others. And the worst part is when we berate ourselves when our ‘n of 1’-decisions become mistakes.
The Daily Antidote
Don’t base decisions or opinions on an n of 1
The Song of the Day
Although it would make sense to feature “Steal my Sunshine” here, I can’t. It’s actually a pretty awful song. I can’t do that to you or me. However, in honor of the n of 1, the song of the day is my favorite song by a one-hit wonder, Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart.
Several years ago I heard a song on the radio by a band called Len. The song was “Steal my Sunshine.” I was instantly amazed by the song and literally rushed out that afternoon to go buy the CD, thinking these guys were geniuses and I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of their masterpiece. That album was a ‘piece’ alright. “Steal my Sunshine” was really the only listenable song on the entire album, and that purchase was, quite possibly, the worst $13.99 I’ve ever spent. I spent 14 bucks for one song.
I felt foolish for succumbing to the n of 1.
In statistical terms, n is the size of the sample set. For example if you flip a coin 5 times, n = 5. As I mentioned in the last post, the larger the sample set, the better off you are in being able to make decisions.
In the case of that album, if I had heard one more song, I would have pocketed the money for something better. To be honest, it wasn’t the first or the last time I made that mistake, it was just the worst.
The problem is we do that for other as well things. We rely on one recommendation, we see one cause, we see one outcome, or we have one experience. Those things influence who we do or don’t date, what purchases we make, what school we go to or job we take, or our opinions of others. And the worst part is when we berate ourselves when our ‘n of 1’-decisions become mistakes.
The Daily Antidote
Don’t base decisions or opinions on an n of 1
The Song of the Day
Although it would make sense to feature “Steal my Sunshine” here, I can’t. It’s actually a pretty awful song. I can’t do that to you or me. However, in honor of the n of 1, the song of the day is my favorite song by a one-hit wonder, Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart.
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Sticky Wicket
File under ”Cage the Rage”
With this month of sporting madness coming to an end, I want to talk about a recently played semi-final event in a weeks-long sports competition that transcended sport as we know it. Wait…what? NCAA?...Butler?… VC who? Oh, no…sorry. I’m talking about the Cricket World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan. I’m sure you caught it. It’s only the most watched cricket game in the history of the world. Ok, maybe you didn’t.
This match was a heavy-weight battle between two bitter rivals, both on the field and in world politics. Many citizens of both countries commented prior to the event that it didn’t matter if the winner went on to claim the world cup, just as long as they won this match. In the days leading up to the event, the media was consumed with the questions of how this event would change the politics of their long standing dispute. Both prime ministers attended the event together as a sign of unity and goodwill, and hope for future collaboration. To say the least, there were a lot of hopes riding on the outcome of this match (by the way India won, but I still don’t understand what the final score was).
Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo/Newscom
The event got me thinking about sports, and the affect sport has on us individually and collectively - the hope we have at the beginning of a season, and the sucker-punch, kicked in the groin feeling I feel every January when the Baltimore Ravens get knocked out of the playoffs (similar to the feeling I get on April 15th with the Orioles). The outcome of sporting events is an extremely personal experience to many people. Just ask the billion-plus people on the Indian sub-continent. We tie personal success to the outcome which is why sport is inspiring, but sport can devastate; sport is enabling, and sport can be debilitating. We link our personal, communal, even national significance to our teams’ successes and failures. But all of the importance we give it can be dangerous, because sport is a ghost. Sport is untrustworthy, and sport is deceiving. Sport does not pay our bills, sport does not save our marriage, and sport does not sign peace treaties. The goodwill we feel, or the despair we endure, is fleeting and we are left right where we began before it started. The effort we spend in hoping for outcomes based on a sporting event, or in effort from releasing our frustrations, is wasted and could be better spent in productive endeavors. Sport can be our springboard, but we still need to carry through.
This doesn’t mean I won’t hang on the edge of my seat or scream at the TV. I love sports and I love the rollercoaster of emotions. But my hope is that at the end of the day, at the end of the season, regardless of the task, and regardless of the outcome we can all say with a smile on our faces “Well, there’s always next year.”
Song of the Day
In honor of restraining our emotions in response to events out of our control, a new hope for peace in South Asia, and the the loss of a visionary leader on this day in 1968, the song of the day is U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)."
With this month of sporting madness coming to an end, I want to talk about a recently played semi-final event in a weeks-long sports competition that transcended sport as we know it. Wait…what? NCAA?...Butler?… VC who? Oh, no…sorry. I’m talking about the Cricket World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan. I’m sure you caught it. It’s only the most watched cricket game in the history of the world. Ok, maybe you didn’t.
This match was a heavy-weight battle between two bitter rivals, both on the field and in world politics. Many citizens of both countries commented prior to the event that it didn’t matter if the winner went on to claim the world cup, just as long as they won this match. In the days leading up to the event, the media was consumed with the questions of how this event would change the politics of their long standing dispute. Both prime ministers attended the event together as a sign of unity and goodwill, and hope for future collaboration. To say the least, there were a lot of hopes riding on the outcome of this match (by the way India won, but I still don’t understand what the final score was).
Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo/Newscom
The event got me thinking about sports, and the affect sport has on us individually and collectively - the hope we have at the beginning of a season, and the sucker-punch, kicked in the groin feeling I feel every January when the Baltimore Ravens get knocked out of the playoffs (similar to the feeling I get on April 15th with the Orioles). The outcome of sporting events is an extremely personal experience to many people. Just ask the billion-plus people on the Indian sub-continent. We tie personal success to the outcome which is why sport is inspiring, but sport can devastate; sport is enabling, and sport can be debilitating. We link our personal, communal, even national significance to our teams’ successes and failures. But all of the importance we give it can be dangerous, because sport is a ghost. Sport is untrustworthy, and sport is deceiving. Sport does not pay our bills, sport does not save our marriage, and sport does not sign peace treaties. The goodwill we feel, or the despair we endure, is fleeting and we are left right where we began before it started. The effort we spend in hoping for outcomes based on a sporting event, or in effort from releasing our frustrations, is wasted and could be better spent in productive endeavors. Sport can be our springboard, but we still need to carry through.
This doesn’t mean I won’t hang on the edge of my seat or scream at the TV. I love sports and I love the rollercoaster of emotions. But my hope is that at the end of the day, at the end of the season, regardless of the task, and regardless of the outcome we can all say with a smile on our faces “Well, there’s always next year.”
Song of the Day
In honor of restraining our emotions in response to events out of our control, a new hope for peace in South Asia, and the the loss of a visionary leader on this day in 1968, the song of the day is U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)."
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