I had another really disturbing, graphic dream last night. I dreamed that a close friend of mine killed herself, and I was there with her trying to talk her out of it. I woke up feeling almost as scared as I ever have felt in my whole life. I don't ever want to have that dream again, about anybody, and I certainly never want to experience that as reality. I couldn't get the images out of my head all day, and it's really been bothering me.
On a completely different and better note, Lindsey posted a blog about this awesome thing that happened recently, and I wanted to share it with you guys too. Lindsey - I hope it's okay that I just copy/paste your entire post, because you put it more eloquently than I ever possibly could have.
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Over the weekend Western Oregon and Central Washington played a Division II softball game. One player, Sara Tucholsky, hit her first (and probably only) homerun of her career. In her excitement she missed first base and turned to go back and touch it. Instead her knee gave out and she collapsed. The umpires ruled that if anyone on her team touched her to help the homerun would be changed to a 2 run single and she could be replaced by a pinch runner. Then a player from Central Washington stepped up - Mallory Holtman, a star who hold many offensive records for Central Washington. She offered, along with one of her teammates, to carry Tucholsky around the bases so that she could record the one homerun of her 4 year career. They carried her around the bases, giggling as they stepped on each base.Rarely do we see these scenes in sports. At all levels of sports that are broadcast on a national level are scenes such as these are not seen. Yet we see these as athletes as stars. Dog fighting, steroids, drugs, alcohol - all things that both professional and Division I athletes have gotten in trouble for. Yet still, Michael Vick, Jose Conseco, and others are still considered stars. "
Thanks for posting that, Lindsey!! I completely agree that sports sometimes gravitate away from healthy competition. Even in rugby, I really actually enjoy being nice to my opposing scrumhalf. There is something about having a mutual respect on the field. I can be an extremely competitive, and I like being competitive, but just remembering that everyone on the field is an athlete - not just me and my team - is sometimes more powerful to me even more so than winning. Does that make me not as hardcore as some other people? Maybe so, and maybe that's why I don't play a varsity sport (not that I could ever get on a team in the first place). But if I could, I really don't know if I'd be down for it. I enjoy playing a sport where we can walk off the field and all get together for a party, everyone mingling together... and anything that happened on the field stays there, and never follows us to the social ...
5 comments:
i'm sorry you had a nightmare baby! I will give you kishes to make you feel better!
ugh, i hate nightmares like that...i've never had one that graphic, but i've definitely had ones where it was so real to life that you keep coming back to it.
no worries about copying my words...i re-read it and realized my thoughts were so all over the place that i made a few weird grammar mistakes...oh well.
i was also thinking & em's text also got me thinking about my cousin - when she played basketball in hs, she was always the person helping someone on the other teammate up even if she didn't knock them down and all that other good sportsmanship stuff even though she was the "star"...hopefully she gets the chance to show that playing softball too
(em's email, not text)
D1 softball was probably the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. It got me free college and a bunch of friends that will stay with me for life, but it also gave me more pain both physically and emotionally then i could have ever imagined. I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it wasn't worth it in my opinion. Now that I am done I can look back on it and see how awful it actually was. No one cared about you, especially your coaches and the "doctors" they sent you too. The doctors were encouraged to keep you on the field as long as you pretty much weren't dead. However, this does so much more harm then people imagine, it's insane actually. I can't wait one day to get back to play in a summer ball game where the fun stayed alive, where it was ok to tell someone good hit, or to apologize if you hit them with a pitch. Where after the game you were upset if the other team won, but it wasn't the end of the world. D1 just isn't as great as it seemed as a kid, and I wish for everyone that if they are playing sports somewhere out there in whatever division or league, that you keep it fun and real, because if it's not fun, what's the point.
<3 mer, sorry that was random and ranty, haha just haven't really talked about that yet...
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