Saturday, February 25, 2017
Turning Agony into Ecstasy
Sports invigorates us with emotional extremes of lows and highs. Often, to reach the highs, we must release the lows...the inner, unquenchable pain of 'the bad loss' or the 'bad play'. We all harbor losses with indelible stains.
Red Auerbach shared his worst loss, as a high school coach, leading by one. His player threw a behind-the-back inbounds pass that was stolen and converted into the decisive basket.
We oversimplify and condense games of over a hundred possessions and many hundreds of plays into 'defining moments', yielding goats and heroes. One man's hero is another's villain.
Jermaine Kearse's miracle reception against Malcolm Butler precipitated a miracle.
Everyone remembers Lorenzo Charles who turned chicken feathers into chicken salad.
Improbable happens.
At every level of play...in every corner of the planet.
Angst turns to joy.
When you never give up.