Enjoying the Moment, For Once

 UNTIL QUITE RECENTLY I was steadfastly opposed to the twenty twenty football season,, because of the number of players and the level of physical contact in the game, and the virus, and all that. But it may be that we are going to pull it off, and that the benefits outweigh the dangerous disadvantages.I listened on the radio as my favorite college team took on a superior opponent. We fought hard, and even led late in the game, but ran out of gas, and lost by a more one sided score than the game was. The stadium was almost empty, deliberately, a victim of Covid 19. The radio play by play announcer put it all in proper perspective, and picked up my spirits. It was really nice, he said, crowd or no crowd, win or no win, to be back inside the beautiful football stadium, on a beautiful early autumn day, watching a good football game on a beautiful green grass gridiron. He reminded us that until quite recently, there was a great deal of doubt as to whether he would be there at all, whether anyone would. He said that watching a football game, if nothing else, gave him and perhaps other people a chance to think about something other than Covid 19 for a few hours. I hadn't actually thought about all that, hadn't thought of it in those terms, but when I did, I realized that this good thoughtful sports broadcaster had gotten straight to the heart of the matter, had hit the mark, had articulated succinctly what was truly important about playing football on a Saturday afternoon in our year of death and disease in the year of Covid 19. I started thinking about all the things we humans do, all the trouble we go to to make our lives more pleasant and inspiring, things unnecessary to our immediate survival, things like art, music, games, parties, all the various forms of entertainment to which we devote so much of our time and effort. More than I have in a long time I reflected upon the added attractions which make life more colorful and worthwhile, and I sat back and enjoyed the frivolous football game more than ever before, even though my team lost.