Hope

Setting in front of me are 4 tickets. Two for each to the two playoff games the Rangers were to play in the opening round. Section 236, Row 1. Pretty decent seats. I received them in the mail yesterday. Today, they will go back in the mail in the ceremonial "Refund for Post-Season Tickets" process. Sort of like a Viking Funeral. Except without, the body of water, the vessel, or the flames...but you know what I mean. Today, I will go the the ballpark just for the pleasure of the experience. I can't recall a year when it felt any better to say,"Wait 'till next year." I will applaud wildly. Not for what occurs today, but for the previous 158 games that made us idiots and liars.

That's what I love about sports (baseball, imparticular) and life. We think we got this thing pegged, but we don't. The hubris overwhelms us and we pronounce the future based on preconceived notions. So, self-inflated are we that we expect reality to bow to what we "know". And then it doesn't. Sometimes that's bad, but sometimes it's good. I think that's important. In the immortal words of MTV, "You think you know, but you don't." I read along time ago that sports are a microcosm of life. Played out in periods, games, season, careers. I still agree. In some (maybe stretched analogy) degree, we see the various emotions, trials, and challenges that life might sling our way...except without the same level of consequence. In this instance, I get some hope. Hope that the negative pundits aren't always right. Hope that tomorrow, or "next year", will be better. Hope that I haven't seen it all. And a reminder that I shouldn't expect others to stay in the box in which I've put them.

(teetering analogy coming)
For some reason, I keep thinking about this in the context of abortion. All the arguments those on the pro-choice side make about how children shouldn't be born into lives of poverty, desperation, or to parents who don't want them and therefore end up in a orphanage. Their argument seems to be that the unborn's potential is too small to warrant a chance. I WILL NEVER EXCEPT THAT. If there is 1/10 of 1/100 of 1%, that's enough. It's a chance. I believe life is the first and greatest gift God gives us all. Without it, we have no way to CHOOSE to follow him and open up existence to all the other blessings God offers. And if you've got .000001 percent chance to make it, and change the world, well...batter up. (I didn't say it wasn't a flawed analogy.)

Well, that's all I got...besides, I've got a ball game to go to.