Lots of anticipation as the boys team from Manchester, UK, comes to play our guys this Sunday night. Big opportunity for this still inexperienced team with lots of raw talent to face players who grew up on soccer, morning, noon and night. It probably will be a lopsided contest, but who knows?
Picked up my youngest son from Virgin America today after his visit down at Cal Tech in Pasadena with my oldest son. What a great spring break for this academically oriented young man.
Fantasy baseball is back along with the real thing and this year I'm in two leagues -- the second one with all three of my boys. Now that my favorite sport is back, for real and in fantasy, and the spring soccer seasons are underway, I will once again be able to distract myself as I did last year from July until November.
Math homework with my daughter, cooking the kids meals, babysitting my grandkids, and driving all over the city and the Bay Area keeps me from having much time to reflect about all of the unpleasant things.
They're still there, still mystifying, illogical, maddening, disgusting, and capable of inducing hopelessness in a moment's notice, but I'm less likely to stay in those moments now.
Maybe the key to happiness is distracting yourself from reality to such an extent that you know longer know or care about all the crappy things that happen in life. The people who disappoint you, or worse; the work opportunities you do not get; the friendships lost; the lives of people you cared for, now gone; the relentless financial pressures in a recession without end; the worries of a parent, a single person unskilled at being single, a man aging who doesn't want to age at all.
There's nothing "graceful" about any of this; it may be in most ways a sordid mess, but being distracted by the better things makes you the last person to notice -- or care -- any longer.
After all, the brutality of a lonely, cold, winter of despair has passed now. There are flowers everywhere. New friendships blossom. The birds sing. Jasmine, wisteria, rosemary scents fill the house.
Best of all -- Go Giants!
-30-
1 comment:
After all, the brutality of a lonely, cold, winter of despair has passed now. There are flowers everywhere. New friendships blossom. The birds sing. Jasmine, wisteria, rosemary scents fill the house.
What a beautiful paragraph. This is the type of paragraph which could easily be part of a great book- an autobiography....writing such a book would be a great distraction, I'm sure!
Post a Comment