Marriage exposes me to certain experiences I doubt I'd choose were I single. Television, movies in particular, offers a great diversification from my usual cinematic interests. Ever seen The Notebook?
The Notebook is a quality film, at least within its own genre. But still, I'd be alright not seeing it one time more than I already have.
Exposure to cinema outside my realm of action, horror, sci-fi, and thrillers brings disappointment most of the time. It equals the amount of disappointment I have with the movie types I prefer.
The Grizzlies
That being said, a true gem shines through every so often. The Grizzlies is one of those films. Set in a small indigenous town in the icy far north, The Grizzlies tells the story about a group of troubled teens.
When a new teacher arrives, it doesn't take long before he sees the rampant depression. Feelings of worthlessness have manifested to the point that many of the kids turn to suicide as a final answer.
Deciding to take action, the teacher uses teamwork (in the form of Lacrosse) as a tool to cut through the despair. I hope I didn't spoil the movie. It illustrates my point as well as any story could do.
Days Of Football
Where I live we don't call it football 🏈, rather the game is known as soccer ⚽. You wouldn't know it if you met my out of shape, cigarette smoking, fool of an ass now. Once upon a time in highschool, I played varsity soccer.
There is a scene in The Grizzlies that brought me back to those glory days. In the heat of the game, action intensifies and the speed increases. For a team playing in unison, the exact opposite happens to each player.
For the player, time seems to slow down. It's part hypersensitivity from adrenaline. In this sense of slow motion is where the magic of teamwork unfolds. Patterns of teamwork have been so firmly established that each player holds a crystal ball.
When each player knows the exact location of every one of their teammates, the magic has begun. The spell is cast when players know where their teammates are going to be ahead of time.
Through Competiton With All Its Failures & Victories
Competiton gets a bad rap sometimes. It's nothing new. People have always been apt to denounce the bunch instead of the few bad apples.
When competition exists unperverted, losing is just as important as winning. No, I take that back. Losing is more important than winning.
Looking back at my losses, I was always able to find some positives. Some smaller successes within the contest. Winning feels great and that's important for building self esteem. But it doesn't teach the lessons a loss does.
As a team, I never lost the game by myself. I sure screwed up a few times and got a verbal beating afterwards, but I never lost the game alone.
There were times the blame for a loss was out on my shoulders. It's what taught me not to blame a loss on any of my teammates mistakes, ever. For if the rest of the team had stepped up and covered the gap, no one would have been crying about the defeat.
I've been on teams that made mistakes and everyone pointed the finger at everyone else. It doesn't need spelling out that those were losing teams. The game wasn't fun to play for an entire season.
And I've been on teams that made mistakes and everyone reached out a hand to lift the other players up. No one ever blamed anyone else for a loss. If we lost, the other team best us fair and square. They were simply better than us that day and they gave some things to work on.
Teamwork Is Essential
If celebrating victory is deflating when there's no one around to share it with, what about defeat? Losing all alone is utterly demoralizing and completely unnecessary.
How does the saying go? In life, pain is mandatory but suffering is optional.
Participating as a member in various teams throughout my life has made more of a difference than I may ever be aware of. Within myself and in the lives that all my teammates went on to live.
I'm not keen on giving advice because I don't like to take it. If there is one suggestion I can make, don't go it alone. Not in life and not here on HIVE.
United we thrive. Divided we suffer.
Thanks for reading and as always...
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