Keeping the Big Picture in Mind
It's the beginning of a new calendar year and that means basketball for my 9-year-old. And with me as the coach.
We start another year of basketball for 3rd and 4th graders. As life gets a little more complicated with my business opportunities, being a dad still ranks over anything I do with and for Hallett Philanthropy. So, I find myself on the bench again this year with ten enthusiastic 8 and 9-year-olds.
Nobody is more competitive than me. At least that's what I like to think. I'm the guy who still doesn't let his kids win at games and might even steal a card or two to make sure that I'm the winner. I don't like to lose. But, I think being older is to my advantage in this case. While the knees hurt a little bit more after practice and I'd forgotten how much a shoulder can hurt when you don't use it and then shoot too many baskets, the perspective of these kids playing a game, at age 52, is greatly helpful.
I find such great joy in working with these boys and none of them are any good at basketball. There's not a chance that any of them are going to play in high school let alone junior high. But they are so much fun. Just seeing them improve, seeing the smile on their faces when they score a single basket, or seeing the team enthusiasm when we tied the score in the middle of the third quarter (even though we ended up losing) is awe-inspiring.
And thus the big picture. The fact that they are having a great time, learning great interpersonal skills, learning to deal with disappointment, learning to share, and being part of a larger group our skill sets that are far more important than winning or losing. Even this overly competitive dad can see that. Being coach for a third year, minus a COVID interruption, I've come to appreciate that bigger picture. I don't care if they win a game. I think it would be helpful to their psyche if they did win one or two, but it's not really that important.
We all need moments to realize what's most important… to see that bigger picture. I never get tired of realizing that the son of this 52-year-old dad is sometime the teacher to his the old man.
