Life Lessons

Oh, the things you learn.

This is probably inappropriate for a half-baked, mostly deserted blog about toys and other geeky nonsense, but since approximately no one really checks this out, it's probably the safest means I have for expressing myself. 

I'm not much of a sports guy. However, my mom loved baseball and I'd watch games with her quite often. She always took control of the television, so hey, it was there. I generally felt I could tolerate that one more than some of the others. Even so, watching it was not a habit I took on for myself. I became fairly baseball free once I started living on my own. I didn't even give it a thought, but it wouldn't be long before it unexpectedly crept back into my life.

Sometime last year I read comedian/actor/late-night television personality Craig Ferguson's autobiography about becoming an American citizen. Great book. Within those well written and entertaining pages he mentioned that American baseball truly exemplifies what he liked most about the American way of thinking. Guys with a 300 batting average are super stars, MVPs, hall of famers. That's only 3 out of 10, folks. You hit the ball 30 percent of the time and you're gold. Despite all odds, you give it a fucking go, and there's little shame in missing.

That's amazingly inspiring to me. Maybe it's corny, but for some reason, that game has a lot to offer in terms of life analogies. In my own life, I've encountered various situations where I let fear control me. Knowing a negative outcome may lie around the corner has kept me tied down. Let's jump in the game. Instead of going up to the plate and taking a swing, I've kept myself on the bench. That fear of striking out has paralyzed me. It's given me nothing but long term regret. There are so many things I wish I could do over.

From now on, I'm going up there and at least taking a chance. I could still fail, but at the same time, I might get a hit! No matter how brutally life will remind you that it is not biased towards you, you absolutely can't roll over and let every opportunity pass you by. It's monumentally better to try than do nothing. It seems like total common sense, but sadly, I'm only figuring it out now.

If only I'd learned all of this much earlier...ah, what could have been. At least now I know better.