March Madness

I am an Ole Miss Rebel and always will be, but following my alma mater’s sport has been fun or, to be more exact, not as discouraging as watching Aggie sports. I have very little expectation for my school, and their occasional successes brought a lot of joy and excitement for me. Not so with Aggie sports though, since we always have lofty hopes for them and more often than not, our hopes are dashed to the ground and we can’t help but become disillusioned about Aggie everything. I am just speaking from the perspective of a tee-shirt fan though.

Watching Aggie sports can really make one mad, but it’s pretty insignificant in the scheme of things compared to some real issues in life. We men have an inclination of blowing things up out of proportion, treating the less important things in life as if they were the most crucial and viewing the most vital things as nonessential or unimportant. I was once a fool and still am, because my love for sports has made me mad and, at some occasions, I was madder than others.

Kathy had just given birth to a ten plus pound boy after hours of labor in a strange hospital in a strange land, yet moments after our third baby was born, I became very anxious to get back to the college campus where I was teaching. “What’s the important thing you need to do?” Kathy was puzzled, wondering why I had to leave at such crucial moment when she needed my help the most. “Well, I have to go back to take care of some things,” I lied to her with a straight face. The truth was that I didn’t want to miss our Friday’s basketball time for faculty and staff. I took off in my little Ford and left a helpless mother and a new-born baby behind in a hospital in Taiwan.

I was a fool, and my love for basketball really did me in that time. March Madness is drawing nearer and nearer and the Aggie basketball team seems to be on life-support. Please be reminded: don’t be a fool like me who once put the last thing first and the first thing last.