Right and Wrong

The billboard flashed by from the side of the road as I struggled with the glare of a dusty summer and using leftover diaper wipes on the inside windshield of a top-down aging convertible.

CHIEFS.

There is a guy I pass sometimes while jogging in my neighborhood with silver on his temples. He runs wind sprints up this hill in a way that makes me wonder if he didn't used to play.

CHIEFS.

He waves at me as I shorten my strides to get up the hill without walking. He's nice.

CHIEFS.

I've never played bat or ball sports. I don't know what that feels like, though I've competed in nerdier capacities. But the things I've competed in have always been very nebulous and subjective. No clear right or wrong.

In the instant when that billboard flashed by, it occurred to me people like sports because it's always so clear, the rules.

There might be bad calls, but there is a right way to pull a lay-up, a right way to clear a hurdle, a right way to achieve first and ten. Not like Syria. Not like healthcare. Not like how to stop the increasing gaps between the haves and have nots.

Instead, there is Sunday afternoon.

CHIEFS.

Someone wins, someone loses, and there are rule-based reasons why. In a world with only the haziest of bottom-line driven boundaries, there are brackets.

In brackets, we can feel safe.

In tailgates, we can identify with our communities without worrying whether we share politics.

Sports are the last bastion of black and white in a global world.

I get it. I bought Beloved tickets to the US vs. Jamaica in soccer this October, partly because he's turning 40 and loves soccer, and partly because it might feel refreshing to cheer GO USA without there being a war attached that I don't agree with and can't support.

I've spent my whole life not getting it. But the world has always been ethically complicated, and it's taken me until my fortieth year on this planet to realize how strong the temptation is to turn my head and run wind sprints up the hill. I think that neighbor of mine used to play. I may not like the game, but maybe I'm starting to understand the need to watch.

CHIEFS.

Don't even get me started on the origin of that name. It's a post for another day.