It's over Baseball is finally over. Bittersweet and amazing, our 10yr olds took 5th in State! Not bad for a pile of kids from a town of 23,000!
So how does it feel? I ask him, my son - the leader of this clan. He felt like they should have one that last game. How do you feel about being eliminated? He gets uncomfortable at this point. It's hard for him, for these kids. And I don't think losing is the hard part. I think it's us adults hoping they stand up tall, shake the other team's hands with pride, and feel as proud as we do about their successes without tears. It's feeling the emotions of letting go of a big season, of losing the comradeship they've been nursing for the last 4 1/2 weeks.
It's about loss, not losing.
Two days later, it's all dust in the wind. All of the kids have moved on from the game. They have exchanged phone numbers and promised play dates for the remaining part of the summer. I took mine to the Zoo and to a Science Museum. We hit a ridiculously, outlandishly cool doughnut shop and ate pizza for two nights. And I find it amazing how proud I am of them.
None of them are holding grudges, none of them suddenly think they shouldn't have played this game they lost. They all feel great and are hosting their own Home Run Derby in two days.
Now if that isn't an example I should strive to be more like, I don't know what is.
“Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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