Going Home

An image that captures my fancy was the scene with Danny Glover in "Angels in the Outfield" where Danny decides to play ball with the neighborhood kids. One of the boys hits a long ball with another kid on first. Danny yells at the kid on first to "go home, go home." The young boy does just that running towards the only home that he knows. I love that scene. Innocence and baseball, really innocence and sports (akin to life I suppose) are a unique blend of acting out one's reality - a funny mix of hope, dreams, and the practical side of life taught to you before you even realized what was happening. Of course, each of us hangs on to our own take on reality - which at times may be a bit at odds from what society is expecting or looking for. So be it. I'm writing this short piece though, following my short video, to say that I'd be hard-pressed not to believe that all sports are mental and physical challenges and worthy ones at that. Sports challenges test one's ability in a myriad of situations. Pretty obvious thoughts I suppose. But what is more interesting is that the field flow of soccer is a bit different than an individual's disciplined quest for excellence in swimming or to the mental sophistry of golf. Tom Watson served us well at 59 to challenge the field in Scotland at The Open, in more ways than one. And tackle football always impressed me in childhood because I always had to dredge up some courage to play the game. But how does it really square with who we are later in life. Or does it really matter. Actually, I think what really matters is to remember that sports is a tool that can serve us well to develop future leaders. Ricky Henderson, during a Baseball Hall of Fame interview the other day, spoke nostalgically about the love of the game that drove players fifty and sixty years ago to be the best that they could be. Ricky misses that overt reflection of love for the game today. As we all know there seems to be more of a drive to excel at the game using any method at hand. Sure, the profit motive is alive and well in sports just about as well as in Wall Street. But maybe we aren't keeping score the right way. And what about those future leaders that we may need in the years ahead. I mentioned in an earlier post that we need to be geographically literate. Well, I'm adding physical fitness in the context of working to better oneself and in concert with those around you. What I am really looking for is the right fabric to make a sustainable societal/global quilt. That right fabric is akin to using Howard Gardner's multiple intelligiences to come up with the means by which we educate our children to be better leaders, not that we all can be leaders, but that we all can better serve each other...