We Have To Try

Dealing with fallout. Maybe I am getting better at it, or maybe just getting used to it. Seems like, either way, there is never a paucity of opportunity to test one’s ability to deal with fear, failure, loss, anger, oppression, lies, corruption and of course, the perpetrator, or perpetrator's modus operandi of cover up, spin or denial. It can be devastatingly comical. 

There was a clever headline in our local newspaper the great Seattle Times this morning, re-capping the UW’s heart-wrenching loss in overtime to the dreaded Ducks from Oregon on Saturday, calling it Monday Mourning. With this reporter the three part dis-harmony started on Saturday night with an over-taxed liver and anger management, Sunday’s reconciliation and rational justification and finally today’s requisite hindsight 20/20 second guessing, observational quality control and managerial recommendations. All over one college football game. Here is my default philosophy, a strategy perfected on rainy fall day in 1989 at Husky Stadium (as a lousy UCLA team incredibly beat a Husky team that was just a year away from a National Championship):

I AM IN THIS FOR THE LONG HAUL. I AM A STUDENT OF THIS GAME, YOUR GAME, NOT MERELY A FAN, I WILL NOT FAIL TO SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS AND COURAGE. I, AS YOU, MAY BLEED PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY FROM THE HARDSHIP OF THIS GAME, AND LIFE IN GENERAL, BUT MY BLOOD WILL FLOW PURPLE AND GOLD. FOREVER. 

The small amount of comfort thusly provided allows the next game to be played, as we pick up the pieces and learn the myriad lessons of battle. The war rages on, we will live to fight another day, now armed with the ammunition of wisdom and experience resulting from our loss. We lick our wounds and prep for the next skirmish with a never say die attitude. As with players and so with fans. 

We lost the game as well as two players to medical retirement, forced to abandon the game they love because of its potential for injury. They remain on scholarship and will hopefully get their degrees and go on to live peaceful and productive lives. They were built for life. 

Dealing with the fallout. It is more than just a game. It is about learning, about growth and about finding the courage to be inspired by the actions and words of others. Minus the risk, the controlled and structured mayhem, the drama, and profiles in courage, we would lose another opportunity to pass such important lessons to our sons and daughters. And our communities, our state representatives, our national leaders and the world at large. 

We bounce back. We get off the canvass and we persevere. We don’t HAVE to win.

But we have to try.