The Game of Life

You gotta love the way life is played out on the soccer field. I mean, sure, there's the thrill of the action, the energy of the crowd (in their requisite lawn chairs with cup holders), and even the agony of defeat.
Such moments have the ability to endear us to memories frozen in time. And believe it or not, if you look carefully, you can see the inner workings of real life out there in the midst of shin guards, nets, and the ball. And so it was this past Saturday as I sat and watched Reece and Olivia play.

The game almost got off to a good start, as Reece recently decided he wants to play goalie. Please know that he is all of 4 foot nothing and couldn't hit 60 pounds on the scales if he tried. None-the-less, he wants to be the goalie.
Last week he had his first go at it.
Stopped two out of three balls.
Not bad for 4 foot nothing, eh?
Yeah, well. What a difference a week makes.

He hustled over and took his signature rabbit hop onto "the mark", in this case the goal net. And yes, he does take a single rabbit hop onto any spot that he considers his place for just about anything. Tell him he's up to bat? Rabbit hop onto the plate. Tell him he's going to kick the ball back into play? Rabbit hop onto his place behind the line of play. Tell him he's in timeout? Rabbit hop onto the spot in the corner. So rabbit hop it was, into position at the net.

Coach took the other kids out to the center of the field to get into their positions for the start of the game. That's when I noticed him. Dancing. That dance. Not good, especially since he never realizes it until the last second. I jogged over to within earshot of him.
"Reece. ReeeEEce! Do you have to go to the bathroom?"
Reece, panicking over the pending start of the game, "Yes!"
"Well then, yell out to coach for a replacement so you can go before he blows the whistle."
"What???"
"I saaaid,....yell out to coach for a replacement so you can go before he...."
WHEEEEET WHEEEET went the whistle.
Me, authoritatively to Reece, "PLAY BALL!"

And so, the game began with a pee pee dancing goalie who had all he could do to stay focused on the game.
WHIZ! One.
WHIZ! Two.
WHIZ! Three.
That'd be the sound of three balls whizzing past Reece and into the net. Time for a new goalie on all accounts. And off flew to the bathroom.

A while later, he was back on the field. Only this time, a new challenge. Ever hear the story of Ferdinand the bull? I have to tell you, it's one of my favorites, both in story line and illustrations. Ferdinand was not like other bulls. While they were doing their best to earn their way into the bull fights, Ferdinand was happy just to sit and smell the flowers.

This is not unlike our Reece, who, like Ferdinand, is content to experience life on his terms. So smack in the middle of game play, he bent down and plucked himself a clover. And he proceeded to smell, feel, and pluck apart that clover to the exclusion of the game.
"FERDINAND! Reece! Put...down...that...clover and focus on the ball."
Finally, Reece was where he needed to be, in focus and without the dancing.
"GO GRIFFINS!"

Okay, apparently, one particular Griffin took me waaaay too seriously on the "Go!" chant, because the next time the coach came to within earshot of the sidelines, this player, who had been sitting out, flagged the coach over.
"What is it, Billy?"
"Coach, when you call us in, would it be okay if I said, 'I don't want to go in,'?"
The coach, who looked both frustrated and caught off guard, replied, "Uh, yeah. If you don't want to play."

Just then, from another player on the sidelines (who, okay, just happened to be my dd, Olivia), I heard, "You're not gonna play?"
She was not happy with Billy and she wasn't about to keep mum.
Billy, seeming a bit surprised that she'd dared to call him on it, shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, "I dunno. Not if I don't want to."
Olivia, clearly disappointed in his lack of enthusiasm, whipped out the best pep talk she could muster up.
She tried to shaming him into submission.

"What? Why??? Your team needs you."
Pretending he hadn't heard her, Billy found a stick and nervously busied himself to avoid further interrogation.
Now just in case you think I approved of Liv's method of,...uh hem,..."encouragement", I assure you I'm aware that we have to work on more appropriate responses, because brow beating probably isn't the best approach.

At one point in the game, we were down 5 or 6 humiliating whoopings a few goals. Suddenly, McKenna, who is one of the less agressive players on the team, successfully blocked a major attempt.

"Woo hoo!" went the crowd.

Owwww!" went McKenna.

Because that what you say when you've blocked the stinging fly of a soccer ball with nothing more than your five digits. Everyone ran over to give her high fives. And with each slap, she bent over a bit and held the injured digits close to her midsection, reiterating, "Owwww!"
More high fives, more, "Owwww!"
Nothing like causing the goalie to relive the physical pain of her costly success again and again.

And then there's the fighting spirit that comes with competition.
The showdown of abilities.
The stage on which to show what you're made of.
I can only assume that a girl on the opposite team had considered that very stage when she yelled,....no, shrieked from the sidelines in disgust, "Aw, C'MON already, kick it like you mean it!"
Her fighting spirit totally caused me to laugh out loud.

Finally, after our team took a major beating played their hearts out, Reece came running over to me, filled with the kind of energy and excitement that could have come in handy a half hour earlier on the field. But alas, sometimes energy is conserved for what truly matters in the larger game of life. Like this;

"MOM! Guess what? Um,...um,...we're getting a snack and it involves scissors."

And off he ran, giddy and undeterred by the lost game, and obviously delighted in the sugar-high possibilities that require the use of scissors.
Like I said, what truly matters in the larger game of life.

"Be joyful always"1 Thessalonians 5:16

Toni