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My alma mater made it way far into the basketball playoffs this year. This doesn’t happen all the time. In fact, it almost never happens. I’ve been consumed with basketball mania for the last two weeks, something else that almost never happens. I follow the scores and pay general attention, but with no other basketball fans in my family, I seldom make it to a game. Even games the whole country is watching.
I’ve enjoyed the publicity for the school and for the team, nonetheless. These kids don’t get admissions breaks or, as the national media have noted, special dorms, special dining halls, or special treatment in class. They have to work to be good in school just as they work to excel on the court. Even though they lost last weekend, the other alumni I know are still buzzing over how well they played and how beautifully the students conducted themselves. Winning is seriously way cool, but it isn’t everything.
In writing, we tend to think of selling as being everything. At least, those of us who aren’t published yet do. Those who are published can describe a whole new list of headaches, not least the need to have each book sell better than the one before it lest the publisher perceive one’s career as stagnating. Regardless of where we are, though, most of us have a goal on the horizon we’re striving to reach, an effort that doesn’t give us permission to let up in other areas of our lives.
Sometimes we’re balancing family needs with personal desires. Sometimes the competing interests are professional. Sometimes they’re totally irrational or some combination of all these, but they still require prioritization and time management and the ongoing desire to do our best.
Were you caught up in basketball mania? Is something you follow as avidly as die-hard college hoops fans follow March Madness? Do you ever have trouble tearing yourself away for something else you consider important?
2 Comments
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Nancy 
Personally, I have no interest in basketball, whether college or professional (but that could be redundant). But it was fun when most of the office got involved in March Madness and I was the only one who could tell them anything about your school!
And you are absolutely correct about each person having an individual list of headaches. Sometimes it’s having to write a sequel, sometimes it’s having to best your numbers from last time, and sometimes it’s having to write something, anything at all!
Thanks for a thoughtful post, Nancy.