Something a Little Different

Last night, I went to bed feeling a bit downtrodden. Not because of some tribulation of motherhood or spat with my husband. No. I was disappointed in my city’s basketball team. (not that one, the other one.)

Now, I am not historically a basketball fan. I absolutely SUCK at actually playing the game. But over this abbreviated season, my husband has pulled me into rooting for our city’s underdog team. They were finally making good and it was fun to watch. But last night, as I lay down with Gus and a couple stories, they were being obliterated in the first game of the playoffs. So yeah. I was a bit disappointed. Not devastated – it’s not the Dodgers, after all – but, you know, a little bummed.

This morning, however, I awoke to the news that, after having been down by something like 28 points (I am too lazy/busy to fact check so don’t hold me to it) they actually came back to win the game in the last minute. I felt an involuntary smile spread over my face. Not like I’d just given birth or been proposed to – but, you know, sort of happy.

The Dodgers are my first (sports) love, and let me tell you that I can watch clips of awesome moments – some that I’ve seen in person, and others that I missed – and get chills. Honest-to-God chills. I feel happy and excited. And when they, in recent years, have choked hard in the playoffs, I have been known to sit in the car to hear Mr. Scully call the last of the season with a heavy heart.

It’s not often that you read about sports on a “mommy blog”. Many women like sports, sure, but when it comes to sharing stories and chatting around the water cooler with friends, we mommies tend toward the kid talk more than anything. I’m the same way. But this weekend was a very good weekend in sports for my city and it reminds me why I like following athletics in the first place. Because it’s something completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but that can really draw me in and allow me to express emotion.

Put it like this. When was the last time you jumped up and down and screamed in either complete elation or abject fury?  Sounds weird, maybe, but that sort of expression feels good to the soul sometimes. And when you pair it with the fact that, in real life, the subject of such outbursts means less than nothing, it feels even better. Life is so full of the heavy, both sad and wonderful. Sometimes a girl needs to just let loose over something a little different.

Maybe I’m not making any sense. Maybe you have to feel it to believe it. I guess my point is that I sort of get why the Super Bowl has the number one largest TV audience in history. And I don’t think it has much to do with the commercials.

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