Watching Baseball and Thinking About Life

Our couches and chairs are filled with people watching the Red Sox competing for first place, but no one truly is focused as conversations and activities have first place in the attention game. Only through the gift of the nonstop melodious voices of the announcers and the techological magic of home controlled instant replays are we able to stay informed on the game.

The animals scatted about the room like throw rugs are more focused as they concentrate on rest unless, unbeknown to our human know it all intelligence, these animals are thinking about the meaning of life, whether god exists and, if so, is god a dog or a cat, or perhaps the truly existential thoughts of when to eat and drink again, and where to stretch out.

The game is on the line and the excitement of the animals is . . . barely perceptible or perhaps more accurately, non-existent. So, are they wiser than we are having limited their lives to the bare essentials or do they simple have the benefits of their intellectual limitations. With animals, I would bet on the latter. However, with some people, it is a conscious choice. I am reminded of my summer days during college when I work a series of what I considered to me menial jobs ranging from loading trucks to working in a box making factory to rolling and cutting and rolling fabric. Like our animals, most of the workers seemed to have limited interests in advancement and the challenges of the workplace. However, for most of these people, the choice was consciously made. They enjoyed having a job that did not take a tremendous amount of thought beyond keep up the pace to a reasonable level (but not the level of the on-so-smart.stupid college kid who is here for the summer and doesn't realized that we are here forever), not hurting their backs or cutting their hands, and making sure not to work outside of the required hours. Moreover, after talking with these people (o.k. I will admit all of them were men), I discovered that most enjoyed not having to make decisions, not having the success of the business rely upon them, going home without taking the job with them, and being able to enjoy their families and their free time (of which there was a significant amount). During even deeper conversations, I found that many of these people were knowledgeable, relatively well read,had interesting hobbies and outside activities, and understood the importance of education (as demonstrated by the pride they had in their children who were attending college - which may be an indication that these men might have wanted to do more, but didn't have the chance or the skills - but that destroys much of the thoughts that I have just written. Perhaps it just is not black and white, but like most things just shadings.

In any event, I for one prefer the excitement of a human life (now, I am back to the animal comparison), which is a life that is like a baseball game in that it has its hits and strikeouts, its walks and runs, its speed and its plodding times, and its scores and close plays. And in life, like baseball, we always seem to be trying to go home.