A little boy cried. His mother told him not to cry.
The score had been close going into the last inning. Little League baseball at its best. A hot summer day, an opposing pitcher who could throw a curve ball, excited parents rooting on their son and his team. The Senators verses the undefeated Pirates.
It’s one thing to lose to an undefeated team. It’s another thing to lose to an undefeated team on whose roster is your best friend and cousin who live in your neighborhood. Bragging rights is serious business, but not serious enough, according to my mother, to warrant tears, which according to her, indicated bad sportsmanship. It was the first and last time i cried over a sports loss.
I learned an important lesson that day: in the grand scheme of life some things are not that important.
What events in your life have not been as important as you made them out to be?
In the grand scheme of life – let that be your perspective. And when tears are warranted, cry a river if you need to, knowing that God surely sees your tears and wants to bless them.
I have had this experience over and over again throughout my life. Competition tends to bring out alot of emothions, some good and some bad. In the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” Gloria Clemente says “Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.” I think what Gloria was saying was the same thing you are saying. Do we know when we are really winning or losing? I am sure that I do not. I do know when I am trying. If I am not trying and I win, is that better than when I am trying and I lose? Not even a little bit. I think that the intent of our actions is way more important than the result. We get caught up in the success and or failure of our “finished products”, yet all the joy, all the thought, and all the love goes into the “production line” Lets live in our intentions, enjoy the journey and the process, and let the W’s and L’s fall as they may. Perhaps, in Little League, this is a tall task, but in adulthood all it takes is a little honesty and self reflection. The most amazing events of my life seem to always be ties, regardless of what the scoreboard says. Everyone involved has the best of intent, and the competition seems more like a dance than a war,