Not Quite
This post may just be more enjoyable in conjunction with this other one about optimism and pessimism.
I was scorekeeping basketball games last night, as I do. Most of the teams score between 40 and 60 points in a given game – I have an Excel spreadsheet confirming this fact, but I can’t figure out how to post it (I’m just kidding, I would never post an Excel spreadsheet here).
Occasionally – three or four times in my six months part-timing there – a team breaks the ever-sexy 100 point barrier. It’s funny, ’cause it’s humiliating to the other team, who is bad enough defensively to surrender that many points, and bad enough offensively not to handle the ball well enough to keep the other team out of scoring position. It’s also funny because the on the scoreboard, each team’s point total is given exactly two LCD spots — so at 100 points, the score returns to 0, and we have a mighty chuckle that the hunted seems to have become the hunter. Bravo.
Last night, Team A cruised toward an easy victory. They had a score in the mid-90’s as time wound down. I was rooting for them to score 100 points. For all the aforementioned reasons, and others.
But they only made it to 99 points.
I ask you now: Are you disappointed?
Because I was disappointed. Because I’m an idealist. And an optimist. And when I see 99 points, I actually see (100 points – 1 point). Not (1+2+2+3+2+2+whatever else the team scored).
And so when a team works together well enough to score 99 points, I feel sorry for them.
I don’t high-five them. I spit in their direction and moan “awww” at the same time. Pity, not applause.
That’s because I don’t often see what is. I know I can and have, but often don’t. I see Perfection and I see What’s Keeping Things From Perfection.
Some call that optimism.
I call it fucking miserable.
Cheers!
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