I love football. I’m a Texas girl, Friday Night Lights and all that. I started going to school football games when I was a seventh grader (when it was Thursday Afternoon Without Lights) and kept it up all the way through college. Well, through Baylor. I didn’t go to any University of Hawaii games.
Even now, I enjoy NFL football season. I love coming home from church and settling down with the Sunday paper and a snack and watching football. I do feel a little hypocritical, as I’m perfectly satisfied to let other women’s sons and grandsons play the game, while reallllly not wanting mine to do it. Fortunately, my own boys never wanted to. And I think Kevin and April are already doing everything they can to discourage the one-year-old Peter from developing any kind of interest at all in it.
But here’s one reason I especially like football, as a spectator sport. The players line up, they run the play, then they stop and regroup. And, in those regrouping moments, the television commentators rerun the play, sometimes several times, from several angles, and explain to me what happened. Then the players line up again, run another play, and stop. I can keep up.
For me, baseball is too slow. Same with golf. Seems like, for most of the game/match, I have to wait and wait and wait for something interesting to occur. And basketball is too fast. Before I have time to figure out what happened, they are racing down the court to the other end where something else I don’t get will happen. Too fast!
The real issue is that I almost always use television-watching time for multi-tasking. Not lots of tasks, just an additional one at a time. I sometimes clip coupons, look through catalogs and magazines, or, most often, knit or sew. Now, with football, I can be knitting along, watching more of what stitches are moving from needle to needle than plays on the field, and suddenly I’ll hear a loud cheer from the crowd and an announcer saying, “Wow! Did you see that?!” Well, no, I didn’t see that. But I can be sure that I’m going to see it, four or five times. And, if they don’t have enough time right then, they will show it to me soon, when a team takes a time out, or the refs have to figure out some penalty and yardage and that sort of thing. It’s perfect.
Basketball? No such thing. While I don’t love basketball, I will watch the Baylor men (usually) and the Baylor women (every time they’re on television), and I’ve learned not to even pick up the knitting needles. There’s no way to keep up with what’s happening. During a commercial, by time I figure out where I am and where I’m going, I only get a few stitches done when, ta-dah, the game’s back on.
These days, I’m watching Olympics. I do like Olympics. I like the pageantry and the athletes and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. (All you youngsters can look at the link below if that phrase is meaningless to you.)
Biathlon. I can do all kinds of things during the biathlon. I was still working on getting my newly re-arranged room cleaned up and organized and could glance up at the TV every now and then and stay up-to-date with the biathlon race.
The Downhill. I actually remember watching Jean-Claude Killy ski the Downhill in 1968. I can listen to the ski events and pay attention when the announcers get excited. But I can’t watch them and do anything else.
Figure Skating. I watched Peggy Fleming win a gold medal in Figure Skating, also in 1968. Absolutely cannot do anything else during these events, except when they are warming up and waiting for scores. My favorite so far is the cute little 15-year-old Russian girl.
Slope Snowboarding. One morning, I read online that the American guy had won the gold with an amazing new trick/move. So I made a point to watch that evening to see the taped-delay program. I watched very carefully. When it was over and he was talking with a commentator, he said, “Wow!” He’d never even tried that before and it worked and it was amazing and I’m sure it was, but I looked carefully, and it appeared to me pretty much like what he’d done before. Apparently the judges knew the difference. I’m still trying to do the math with all the multiples of one hundred eighty. But, there’s more time waiting for the scores than there is for the actual run, so I can get a little bit of reading/knitting/cleaning done.
You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
1 Corinthians 9:24, 25 (The Message)
Obviously, I’m not someone who does sports, even though I like to observe them. I train hard and run in different ways. Here are the hard-training winners I enjoy being around.
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- A three-year-old and a five-year-old who worked together to complete a hard puzzle
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- Children who shared ideas and cooperated to make a zoo
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- A very young four-year-old who did this jigsaw puzzle completely, totally, absolutely, all by himself!!
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- Children who think it’s fun
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- to explore earthworms, as we thank God for creating all kinds of animals
With preschoolers in Sunday School, there may be some agony, but it’s mostly thrills. And most of the time, everybody wins.
The thrill of victory; the agony of defeat
The agony of defeat athlete
Golf is my game. I love the precision of every move. But the Olympics are great. They come every four years with much anticipation and joy. The opening ceremonies are filled with hopeful faces and splendid entertainment. Then you have two weeks of sports that you would normally not give a thought. when it is over, they give you another dazzling show and it is over for four years. I watch to experience sports I can never try. what a wonderful way of life.
I remember that you played golf. I know my Dad *loved* golfing. I guess playing it is different than just watching it. I also remember that you named your golf balls.
I love “hearing” your voice every Friday morning. When reading these, I can actually hear you saying these words. Happy Friday!
Thanks. I’m glad we get to “chat” on Friday mornings before you have to go to work. Hope you’re feeling better.
I agree totally with Kay! Maybe this is the reason that I haven’t called to set up a lunch visit lately, I feel like I visit with you every Friday morning!
And it’s a *much* shorter visit than lunch!
Yep! All of us who love you, love to “hear your voice,” as we read your words! Almost as good as a real visit with your precious self. Thanks for sharing yourself with us. Suzy
And I’m always glad to hear from you, too. Hope you’re all staying healthy during all this wintry weather.