Thursday, August 25, 2011

Baseball

Eli and I have been watching Ken Burns' "Baseball".  Good stuff.  It is so rich with history and philosophy and sport.  In it, Bob Costas notes how very few things maintain their importance to us throughout our entire lives from childhood to old age.  Our interests change, people come and go, our careers take only a portion of our lives.  Our families are with us throughout.  And baseball.   The sum of that history imbuing all stages of a baseball fan's life creates quite a story.  It is just a story with meaningless pieces, but the sum of those parts creates something real.  The story of the game parallels America's history over the past 150 years: race relations, monopolies, labor struggle, democracy, capitalism.  For those who follow it, it's a story that intertwines itself into our lives.  It is both metaphor and reality.

Eli and I are sharing the story.  It is real: fun to watch and play.  It is metaphor: we experience and observe the mental and physical struggle players and teams face.  It brings us together to share space, learn, discuss, experience defeat, celebrate, and tell stories.

No comments:

Post a Comment