Sports

It's NFL Sunday.  I'm sitting on the sofa, in my Man Cave, while my friend Hank is sitting on the chair next to me.  We're both watching football on my fifty inch TV.  I have the Direct TV NFL Football package that enables me to watch all fifteen games being played that day. 

Hank is a staunch New England Patriots fan and I'm a long suffering Rams fan.  Hank is in a betting pool where he and his partner pick winners of each game.  If he wins the pool, he and his partner get to split hundreds of dollars each week.  They can win thousands if they win the whole year.

I took a different approach.  I love football and I wanted to get my wife involved.  She could care less about football until I suggested we bet on six games a week.  Now, she has become a rabid football fan.  To win thirty dollars a week (6 x $5) she has learned the game, learned the teams and screams holy hell if her team screws up. 

As of this writing she is up on me by twenty dollars.  Two years ago I got her for twenty dollars for the whole year.  However, last year she got me for a hundred (she's really good at this).

The important thing here is now football is fun for the both of us.  Football Sunday has become a special day because we both hate to lose.  She doesn't have a favorite team, but she does have a few teams she hates.  The only reason I can assume she hates those teams is because she loses when she bets on them.  

I'm always very competitive.  My wife is not because she hates to lose.  However, she becomes very competitive on football Sunday.  Even though I also hate to lose, I love seeing her smile when she wins.  She doesn't rub it in when I lose, but I can see how proud she is when she beats me.

I love football, but it doesn't define me.  Hank loves football and buys hats, helmets, shirts and jackets that have a Patriot's logo on them.  Even though he gets upset when the Patriots lose, they don't define him.  My friend Kenny is a major Yankees baseball fan, but they don't define him.

I mention this because there are people who are defined by their sports team.  In many countries outside the United States, football (Americans call it soccer) is a major pastime.  Fans around the globe have died fighting because the home team loses to the visiting team.  To those fans, football is almost a religious experience.  They are defined by their team.

We are seeing more of this problem in America.  Some people are so defined by their team that they will fight someone wearing a jersey with another teams logo on it.  This happens more when their favorite team loses.  

Sports should be fun.  Win or lose it should be entertainment.  Feeling depressed, angry or frustrated for more than a few minutes after a game is not normal.  There is something else going on inside these people than just the sport.  Their team losing is just bringing out the bad stuff inside them.

Happy people don't fight, get depressed or get angry when their team loses.  People who give positive energy out to the universe love the entertainment of the sport and the team they love.  People who love life see sports as another positive element in their life.

Unhappy people get their negative energy button pressed when their team sucks.  These are the people who need the outside world to be good to them.  These are the people who don't love themselves.  These are the people who blame everyone and everything for their unhappiness.  These are the people who are defined not only by their sports, but by their politics, religion, etc.

Sports are important in my life.  I enjoy watching my favorite football team, basketball team and sometimes baseball team.  Sports make me happy.  However, I'm defined by the number of times I laugh.  I'm defined by the life I love.  I'm defined by the positive energy I get from the universe.  

I'm Defined By The Good I see In Myself And Other People.