I was half-asleep, overwrought, and overworked when I wrote the Land of Broken Dreams post. That was only one shard of dozens of fractured ideas kicking around my head last night, and the only one that seemed to gain any footing on the page. Today I’m just going to let a few more loose and see what happens…
Some Thoughts:
- The Warriors blew out the Cavs ugly (34 pts) and the Spurs keep winning. I am starting to think that maybe the NBA isn’t altogether about star power. Sure, Steph Curry is lights out, but there are four other starters and a host of bench players putting in work to make them near invincible. And the Spurs? Three of their top four players are monitoring minutes to be rested and ready for the playoffs and the team is still winning almost every game. At what point do we acknowledge that Popovich is in that same rare air as Belicheck and Madden? The man has been coaching the Spurs since 1996 for pete’s sake.
- Part of being back on track with my writing is realizing what it takes to get back on and, eventually swerve off track. It all comes down to pace and pressure. When you spend so much time rushing to meet a deadline it takes a lot out of you. How then can you expect yourself to continue that intensity daily while dealing with, well, life? I really can’t say that this is reasonable. What I need to learn (and eventually write about) is how to strike balance as a writer and organize oneself in a fashion that allows you to do a little bit every day, setting reasonable goals all the way up to the deadline.
- Finally physically let go of my anger in regards to my kids’ football season. I had to sit with it a bit longer to really experience it and understand what it was about. The whole thing really boiled down to broken promises, failed expectations, and my own failures as a parent by being sucked in by a truly charismatic leader. The boys’ coach is truly charismatic and is a very skilled coach–especially at the high school level where it is purely about winning. He selects talent and makes that talent so much more confident and straight up better. Unfortunately, if you are part of the select list you are basically cast down and ignored. I had one son who was part of that good group and one that was not. He pit them against each other and that was hard for me as a parent. I allowed myself to be drawn in by promises of what would be and virtually nothing promised was realized. We won the championship, but given the talent level of the four team league, it would’ve been a shame not to win. What sucks is that I lost a year of valuable teaching for one of my sons. Moreover, he nearly lost his love for the game.
- I’m excited about being back on track with a work schedule. Perhaps I’m more excited about the structure than the schedule and responsibilities themselves. All I keep thinking about is how much it will help me as a writer and a coach to have that level of structure.
- Speaking of coaching, my 10-12 team lost their first game while my 8-9 won their first. My 6-7 continues to find wins somehow, despite a very raw and often confused set of players. Those two wins boil down to a couple of players really playing beyond the level of the league. I cannot say that of 8-9 or 10-12 where the problem is an inability to execute on offense. That’s on me. A good offense should create opportunity for the least skilled player to be successful and for those who have talent to excel. I’m still working on that part.