Two Months In

Reflecting on two months of non-sports watching as we enter a new year altogether/all together.

It's clear to me at this point that my world was compressed by the amount of attention I paid to sports. I had fun with it, to be sure, but I'm not sure that I can claim balance the way things used to be. Maybe that's something I can find later on when and if I return to the games.

For now, the world seems more spacious and interesting without the constant concern of wins and losses. It's interesting to think of how this shift in my overall attention has manifested in my personality. I'm sure I'm the least qualified to assess things, but I would like to think that I am a calmer, more interesting version of my old self. 

If I'm being honest, this exercise has not been a perfect effort so far. On Sundays you can easily catch me accessing Boston.com by accident, where the score of the Patriots game is not hard to see. There isn't much A-Level sports news (at least insofar as Boston teams are concerned) that I have not been able to simply distill from a potent mixture of Facebook posts, Twitter declarations, and local news. It's not something I am proud of, and perhaps this time of resolutions will encourage me to redouble my efforts. 

It shouldn't be hard to do so thanks to one of the most special christmas gifts I have ever gotten. My wife Lori, knowing about the next challenge on my list, gave me a gorgeous classical guitar. It's got nylon strings, which I had been taking about for a long time. I've been strumming away on it for a week now, and am really looking forward to building on what I already know.

For now, fire, friends and food are calling, so I will leave you with one of the driving thoughts behind both The Off-Season and New Years Eve, long my favorite holiday;

It's never a great idea to take anything you cherish for granted. Try, instead, to present and aware of the moment you are in.

I wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and hearty 2014.