New Year's resolutions for sports fans
Most of us make New Year’s resolutions about our budgets, waistlines, relationships, or jobs. We commit to a Bible reading plan or just to read more in general. We want to be better this year, smarter, more mature, more successful. In general, we make resolutions about those areas of life deemed important. How often, though, do we consider the sheer amount of time we spend on sports: watching, playing, discussing, reading? In terms of sheer volume, sports hold a high priority in our lives, and that is why making a few resolutions as a sports fan makes a lot of sense:
I will not let any team or player’s performance ruin my day. No matter how bad your team is doing, how wide that field goal was, or how much that walk-off homer hurt, it is still not worth having a bad day over. Don’t kick your dog. Don’t yell at your kids. Don’t pick fights with co-workers. Don’t slack off at work. Sure, it’s frustrating, but all of those things you would sacrifice to a bad mood are of much greater significance. (If you think otherwise, you might have some other resolutions to make.) I will never make my sports fandom personal. The fans of other teams are not your enemies. If they see you as their enemy, that is their blind spot and you don’t need to take the bait of their insults. As hard as it is to remember, you aren’t on the team and your identity isn’t found in the team, so you don’t need to pick fights or get angry with opponents. Sports are competitive, and competition should be lively and intense, but only harm comes when you take it or make it personal. I will enjoy successes and the stories associated with them instead of relishing the failures of others. The potential for wonder and excitement and amazement in sports is so great that to lose sight of it because you enjoy watching others fail is simply pathetic. You are giving up the best and most noble for the lowbrow and hurtful. If your favorite team is strong, you have built-in narratives to enjoy and performances to appreciate. If your favorite team is bad, you just need to look a little further afield. Don’t let your team loyalty keep you from being a fan of the game. Wonderful stories and sublime performances are all around you. Don’t miss them waiting for your rival to lose. I will enjoy sports with … not instead. Sports can easily be an idol, a usurper of our time and emotions, so you must keep them in their place. They cannot supersede the people in your life, and, in fact, are better enjoyed with people. They can consume thoughts and focus but are much more useful as a needed break from other stresses. When we put sports on the highest seat, we are choosing them instead of more important things when they are actually at their most valuable when enjoyed with those things.
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