A column about history, culture, policy, and things in between.
I am currently coaching a team of second and third grade boys in a program called Upward Basketball; a youth league sponsored and conducted by a number of Churches in the Brookfield and surrounding area.
I am trying to help the boys develop a greater level of skill at the game of basketball while teaching them a few things along the way, like accepting victory with humility, defeat with grace, receiving joy from their play, and hopefully, helping them one or two steps down the road of knowledge about their Christian heritage and faith.
But they are teaching me many things as well, and I have been reflecting on some of them after Saturday’s game.
They taught me that a fallen opponent is someone to be helped up and comforted, not ignored and raced by on the way to a score. Their opponents are clearly identified by a different color jersey, but ours are sometimes harder to see. But they are there, aren’t they? And when we are “on the court” with them, we need to try and act towards them as the boys on our team acted.
They don’t care a fig about the shot they just missed, but they are relentlessly zealous and eager about preparing for the next one. They are teaching me to worry less about what is past, and to “fix my eyes” on what is ahead.
They reminded me of what Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson taught us all twenty years ago; that there is as much joy and value in making a nice assist as there is in scoring the goal or the basket. We have chances to make “assists” every day, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant they may be.
But most of all, they are teaching me to live in the moment and work in that moment with clarity and passion. The joy they take in the execution of simple things is complete; it is pure; it is rewarding.
I know, I know - it is easier for 7-8 year old boys to do this than it is for adults. They do not have the full plate of responsibilities or the knowledge of darker things that we do. But their world has frustrations and fears too, even if they may be smaller than ours are. Despite this, they manage to set these aside, and approach their tasks with an emotion that we rarely see and only hear about in beer commercials – GUSTO!!
I will look for ways to display some gusto as I go about my daily schedule, no matter how mundane or routine they may seem.
Thanks boys for teaching an old dog some old tricks.
AND GO PANTHERS!!
