Getting all philosophical about endings

I remember getting on my bike as a junior in high school the day after basketball season ended in a loss. Uncharacteristically, I was feeling good, and suddenly had all the time in the world. It was cold, but I could feel spring, the snow had melted, and I was looking ahead to a summer and then senior year. Despite the pain and sadness of the loss the night before, somehow it had occurred to me that the sun really did come up no matter what and it gave me an optimism and joy that I don’t often remember feeling. I remember rounding the corner near my house and the tire on my ten-speed hitting the accumulated sand that had run off against the curb and I almost wrecked. To this day, I remember smiling at the idea that I was feeling good but the sand in the road could easily bring me down if I didn’t pay attention.

This Tuesday night, I stood in forty degree weather and rain as I watched my son finish out the high school football season. They got beat, and the season ended. For some I’m sure it feels like the world ended, and as we each bring our own frame to the experience I don’t want to minimize it, but for me I was reminded of seasons ended almost twenty years ago and the fact that the sun does come up tomorrow. I think the new lesson I might be learning is that one of the keys is to have joy in the season.

I thought about this more as I read about the New Kids On The Block on a reunion tour. The reviewer from the Star Tribune said they were great, and the other day on the way home I heard “The Right Stuff” on the radio for the first time in a decade. It reminded me of the pep band playing the first few bars of that tune as the announcer called my friend Vince’s name during our senior year of basketball. Vince hated the New Kids, and I remember him grimacing up at the band. It makes me laugh now. Twenty years later, the New Kids aren’t any better musically, but they are fun. After listening, I also realized I can no longer make fun of my daughters musical choices of Hannah Montana or High School Musical. Sure, Bob Dylan writes with more meaning, U2 is deeper, and Jimmy Buffet is a poet, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to just hum along with a catchy tune.

I guess that is what I mean by enjoying the season. Two decades later, I don’t remember the crushing feeling of losing, I remember what happened during the season, and I remember the people who went through it with me. I remember the look on Vince’s face, I remember Mike eating more than should be humanly possible at McDonalds, and I remember Justin in the back of the bus laughing. There are a few plays I remember, but I remember more about what shoes everybody wore than what the scores were.

The sun does come up after the season is over. That’s the first part of the lesson, and two decades later I’m beginning to realize that learning that lesson just leads to an even better one to live fully in the season, and embrace the team, family, and friends around you.