Becoming a Fan
After almost 10 years of marriage, Eric and I hooked up the Television. I have been able to avoid caring about Sports for a long time now, but it's NBA Playoff Season, and the games are Live in my living room. And when something comes this close, you have almost no choice but to allow a relationship to develop. The trick is to start to learn the details. Understanding the strengths of the individual players' games, knowing the strategies and preferences of the different coaches, and getting the scoop on the team's management turns Basketball into a dramatic and entertaining piece of theatre.
Yet I am noticing that it is much easier to be interested and engaged when you have a favorite player, coach or team. Otherwise there is no emotional juice to draw you towards it. Trying to stay an intellectual observer is too boring and does not imprint the experience in the mind. But as soon as you allow yourself preferences, the experience becomes personal and relevant and you literally See the Game differently.
The shots and plays from your preferred team color start to become "good events" and the same moves from the other team either go unnoticed or become "bad". You can feel yourself willing the shot clock to slow down, getting frustrated when an opportunity to tie the score is missed, and depressed when your star player gets injured. Your team actually starts to glow brighter, and you almost believe that they deserve to win.
Most spiritual traditions refer to the practice of "non-attachment" as an important skill. We are warned that being ruled by our likes (ragas) and dislikes (dvesha) is confusing and dangerous and will only lead to suffering. But on this journey to know Love, I am discovering that the practice of Attachment is vital. We need the power of the Emotion to burn through the deep layers of conditioning. A purely mental understanding of Freedom will not provide the keys.
It is our preferences that wire us into the beings we are. The more I attach to the way Peace, Love, and Happiness Feel, the more familiar I become with these feelings, the more they become my reference point. Then, and only after I am firmly hooked into these Feelings, the practice of "non- attachment" can be added to the mix. Usually, the first step is to relax and loosen the details and circumstances that have been relied on to create those feelings. And maybe even start to notice that you are the Source of your own Joy.
The quarter finals are just over. The Houston Rockets just lost in Game 7 to the Utah Jazz. I feel a little sad because it turns out that Jeff Van Gundy is my favorite coach. Yet I am thrilled about Barron Davis and the Golden State Warriors history making defeat of the Dallas Mavericks. And I love to watch the formidable Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.
This vivid discovery of becoming a Fan is fascinating to me. And because I am still enough of an outsider with very little to lose, I have the luxury of experimenting with my preferences as the Games are being played. Unfortunately for me, this phenomenon is not what Eric wants to talk about while watching the game, so we are still working those kinks out.
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Comments (4)
Thanks. Very interesting commentary. I was taken by your names at first, wondering if it were a woman or man writing this; I gather than Kira is a woman and Eric a man. Interesting. You nail the addictive / attachment quality of sports well. I avoid sports now for that very reason and have switched my "game" to politics which is more real and exciting for me. My favorite players for the moment on the Ojai political scene are Joe DeVito and Sue Horgan. On the national scene, take your pick; there are plenty of bad guys and one or two good guys. I see sports once in awhile on the big TV screen at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club, and I immediately get drawn in. Is Steve Nash the little white guy with the Suns that is "the fastest guy in basketball"? I saw him drive into the middle of all these giants and then quick as a wink shoot the ball out to the perimeter where a teammate made a three pointer with ease. See, I'm already attached to the outcome. You have a great spiritual point about the value of atttachment as Love, which runs across the grain of the prevailing "spirituality" these days of blissing out on oneness. Hell with the oneness; give me the excitement of the game of twoness (without losing oneness as a base of course). Isn't that what love, devotion and bhakti yoga are all about? Gee, is basketball really a spiritual exercise?
Comment #1 Posted by: Dennis Leary | May 6, 2007 09:06 AM
Kira, that was really a delightful read. Coming from Chicago, the city of diehard sports fans, I remember becoming a Cubs fan inspie of myself. As for basketball being a spiritual exercise, I once had the privilege of seeing Michael Jordon in a nail biting finish bringing the Bulls to a win with a leap over the heavens, making the basket just as the final buzzer went off. It was truly a spiritual experience.
Comment #2 Posted by: Demitri | May 6, 2007 11:51 AM
Great post, Kira. The positive I see in watching sports, and identifying with a team (Go Bruins!), is the sense of shared community, and just enjoying it as part of the human experience.
While I used to be a budding sportscaster in college, and watched anything and everything sports, I now just catch my alma mater UCLA hoops and football games. I appreciate the efforts of the unpaid athlete far more now than that of the professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, etc.
Growing up in Southern California, however, and watching the Lakers win five championships in the '80's had a big influence on me for many years. The joy and art that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird (and later, Michael Jordan) brought to the game was a special time for basketball fans.
Comment #3 Posted by: Tyler | May 6, 2007 01:01 PM
Tyler
I love the idea that your "early days" as a sportscaster might have prepared you for becoming Ojai's broadcaster.
Thank you for all you are doing.
love
k
Comment #4 Posted by: Kira Ryder | May 6, 2007 08:14 PM