So the obvious thing to write today would be something about Thanksgiving. You know, I ate like a glutton then laid on the floor to recover, then I had to find a way to…, yeah, “rise up”.
Nope, not this year
This blog is a way for me to try to share a little hope on a Monday morning. I started it when I was working at my church as a general helper. Times were a bit tough for me on an emotional level, so in order to encourage myself, I started writing these little snippets to start my week and it just sort of evolved. Basically, it my free therapy session to work out my own stuff.
Today, I’m bothered by football. Not the NFL kind, but what most of the rest of the world calls football. My team in England has once again dropped a game that they should have won. We are off to our worst start in the history of the Premiere League. It’s pretty dismal every time we take the field. If anyone needs a Monday morning pick me up, it’s my boys in red, the #Arsenal.
I watch sports because….well, I don’t really know why, but I watch A LOT of sports. I get sucked in and just fall in love with one sport after another. Of course most of you probably know about my obsession with hockey. I’m also all in with soccer, and especially Arsenal FC in England. My grandson and I decided to pick a team in the English Premiere League and we landed with Arsenal. What we didn’t realize is that they were in the midst of one of their worst runs of play in history. Even though they have a rich history of winning, we are certainly not bandwagon fans. We’ve chosen a horrid time to get married to such a team. And that’s what I want to talk about this morning.
I think the reason I like sports so much is that it always gives a glimmer of hope. For whatever reason, most of the teams I support have been long time losers. Most of them have found a way out of the doldrums, if not permanently, at least of a short moment of glory. My #Kings struggled through 47 years of mediocrity before hoisting a trophy. My Clippers are in the midst of having NEVER even making it to a final, much less winning the crown. My Dodgers just ended a drought that began in 1989. Even my Steelers were the joke of the NFL for over 50 years before finally becoming the winning team they are now known as. So Arsenal, for all its history, is a perfect fit for me.
Sure, we just lost ANOTHER home game to a team we should have beaten. Sure, we played ANOTHER game that looked as though our over payed squad was made up of teenagers. Sure, we’ve found ourselves AGAIN in the bottom half of the table. But even through all this I have hope. I know that next week we will face the team that sits in first place, and I think we will win. I feel like our future is just around the corner. I know that our past mistakes do not have to define us. I know that we too can…
—Rise Up!!!
Minister Of Mocha 