What I Learned From Sports Talk Radio

Our beloved Reds are doing something this season that we are not all that familiar with: Winning.

This has caused some fans to be overjoyed with the prospect of having a team to be proud of and looking forward to seeing play the fall. Whereas there are others who are naysayers and think people are overreacting, that our local teams do this all the time and once we get our hopes up they'll come crashing down upon us.

Listening to a local sports talk radio host, he imparted some wisdom that can be applied to all areas of life, not just a winning baseball team: Don't judge someone about how they react to a situation. If someone wants to over-react to a win (or some other event in life) let 'em!

Who says that a team has to have an established tradition of winning in order to get excited about them? Why is it that people are afraid to look silly for showing emotion? I guess that's what I love about my kids, kids in general. In everything they do they wear their emotions on their sleeve and they show the passion they have for something, whether it's going down the slide at the park, getting their favorite meal for dinner or seeing a special person in their life.

What happens to adults, that they have to maintain some kind of composure, be reserved when it comes to things that get them excited? Life's too short not to get worked up about stuff. Especially the good stuff. A sunny day, a good meal, hanging out with friends, a winning baseball team are all things worth getting pumped up for, in my opinion.

My favorite quote below has a little something to do with this thought:

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!

--Jack Kerouac