Hope, and then the Despair

It must have been only the second post of the year, with me getting ever more lazy about writing in this blog. Maybe it is because the baseball season was off... but now since the season has already begun I guess I'm back in business again. Lest the lazy bug get me.

Ah the baseball season... everyone starts with a clean slate, everyone still has a chance to make it to the baseball playoffs. However the truth is that the baseball season is already about two week old and already I am despairing over my teams chances. You see the team I am an ardent fan of, the Arizona Diamondbacks has just gone through a 3 game losing streak. In the greater scheme of things, it is no big deal since baseball has a 162 game season. However, the heartbreak now is still very much fresh in my mind ( or is that the heart?), especially after following the latest game against the San Francisco Giants through the net.

The first 3 innings, to put it mildly was ugly for my team. There were fielding errors, baserunning errors and even errors letting your teammate steal a base. I was just following the game through words, and even then i could barely watch. Before I knew it my team was alrady 7 runs down with me totally ready to write off this game. But the baseball gods have a funny way with people: they give you hope. At first we score a few runs in the fourth inning, and 3 innings later we actually went up 9 - 7. Could this be the baseball gods finally smiling on the team? Of course not.

You see after giving you hope of a major comeback, hope of a game for the ages, hope that finally the losing streak is snapped with a morale boosting victory over the divisional rivals, they come right back and take it back. Just like that. To make it worst, it was a former member of the team who hit the winning run against our bullpen ace, further rubbing it in.

Truth be told, I was ok with losing. I just was not ok with being on the cusp of a victory only for it to slip through the fingers, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. An emotional roller coaster. The hope, and then the despair.

I think many people feel the same thing before. Having hope was plesant, having your hope raised all the way to the heavens but then letting it plummet down to earth is devastaing. We feel this pleasant resignition when we hope against all odds, but when the odds are in your favour and hope almost becomes reality it is a whole lot more emotionally draining. I can see one being thankful for the hope but not the emotional wreakage after such an event.

We see many such parallels in life, such as thinking you almost had the girl of your dreams only for her to tell you she already has a boyfriend; seeing no points on your traffic police test but get a immediate failure at the end; thinking there is no way you are not getting an A for the exam only realised you failed. We are experienced in this type of dissapointment, but like getting kicked in the privates it hurts every single time no matter the prior experience.

Shit happens. Live with it.

Quote of the day

"Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair."

-Thomas Hobbes
English political philosopher (1588 - 1679)