It’s funny. I deleted a post I was writing this week about appreciating the moment, appreciating what we have right now. It was about Javier Baez, the Cubs as they are, and life. Too preachy, too obvious, too blah-blah-blah. So, deleted.
Obviously Robin Williams taking his own life has very little to do with Cubs baseball or even baseball at all, but there is this scene from Good Will Hunting that says almost exactly what I wanted to say.
If you’ve seen it, you know it’s Robin Williams’ character discussing how he missed GAME 6 to “see about a girl.” No regrets. The message rings achingly true for me when I think about all the things we miss in life. I miss Cubs games, opting instead to follow them sporadically on GameDay (yes, I now watch baseball on a spreadsheet, essentially). I miss out on the Twitter chatter. But I don’t regret it. Other people miss out on church or weddings or time with their kids or entire weeks of work, opting instead to attend Cubs games/tweet like mad/pretend to be Jim Belushi . . . whatever it is.
Learning that one of America’s favorite people ended his own life makes the best of us wonder how any of us make it through, but I tell you, it makes me dwell on the heart of the message I deleted when I erased that post (entitled “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s going, going, gone”), which was this: appreciate this moment. Enjoy right now. Learn to love the Cubs in the rebuilding process, Baez in the learning process, and life in whatever sucks-at-the-moment state it may be in. Enjoy it. Do what you love. Appreciate what and who you love.
I’ll finish the facepalm with one tiny little thought about baseball in general. There’s an awful lot of talk about how the game needs to speed up, how football is America’s new pastime, and how baseball as a spectator sport is dying. I disagree. Baseball is what it always has been great at being: the best vehicle for enjoying the moment I’ve ever known. You watch a baseball with friends, family, strangers, and you actually get to enjoy life and the game. Baseball gives us the one thing we never seem to get anymore: pause. You can watch baseball and talk. You can watch baseball and feel. You can watch baseball and laugh, cry, daydream, whatever, and still not miss a thing. Try having a meaningful conversation during a football game . . . even a meaningful conversation about football, and watch the levels of unspoken perturbed discomfort blanch the faces of everyone in the room. Baseball gives us the chance to enjoy the moment for what it is, allowing for a bit of hope for what the next moment might be. So the next time you find yourself bemoaning how bad the Cubs are or telling yourself you just can’t take the pain of life without a World Series victory, tell yourself to shut up and enjoy the game. Because really. It’s good to enjoy the game, however far off the dynastic horizon might seem.
I don’t regret missing so much baseball, but I’d regret watching the games and failing to appreciate the beauty in being able to do so. Don’t let that happen to you.
Anyway. It really sucks that Robin Williams is dead. I will miss him. But I’ll always remember him fondly and gratefully for reminding me that life is hilarious, enjoyable, and worth fighting for. With just that hint of a reminder that sometimes it’s too much. May we all find the grace to carry on.