Expect Different

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I have documented well my preference for sports teams outside of the state of Ohio over the years but at 63 years of age sports is not that high on my list of priorities. When it comes to baseball I have been a Pittsburgh Pirate fan since puberty, about as long as I have been an Oakland Raider fan, and when it comes to college football I prefer The Michigan Wolverines over all others and have since 1975. I am allowed to like what I like even if I do live in a city (Columbus, Ohio) where I am surrounded by and constantly heckled by rabid fans of the Ohio teams, and the energy it requires for most of them to express their allegiance to their favorites while relentlessly putting down mine is something a guy like me grows used to but will never understand. It really is a priority for the majority of Ohio sports fans to behave this way, they cannot help it and that's okay with me because 40 years of enduring them hasn't changed anything for either of us. I still like what I like.

On Thursday, September 3, The University of Michigan opened their 2015 football season by losing on the road to a pretty good Utah team. That's just college football to me, it happens...more frequently than I would prefer but it happens. I will go about my own life regardless of what college athletes can or cannot accomplish on the field, but as I expected my friends who are Ohio State fans began reveling in the glee that Michigan lost within seconds of the final score (24-17) by flooding my email box with taunts and disparaging remarks about the Michigan football squad and their new coach and even his family! The message box on my facebook page was also inundated with the same senseless frivolity and I expect it will be a long season for me as well as them. They will spend a great deal of their time boasting and carrying on while I will be looking for more prosperous ways to fill my time.

In years past I would have played along if for no other reason than to amuse them but in recent years sports has fallen to somewhere near the middle of the list of what I really care about. I think a lot of that has to do with being 63 and accepting that people my age don't really look that appealing dressed in sports attire such as football jerseys or painting our faces in our favorite team colors. Actually, I stopped doing that when I was in my late 30s and just moved forward, concentrating on things that mattered more to me than whether or not my favorite teams are better than anyone else's; in other words, life got in the way of trying to hold onto my youthful priorities until I die. It is difficult for my friends that are  my age and Ohio sports fanatics to comprehend when I tell them these things because to many of them, it is a way of staying in a place that makes them still feel as if they fit in with a college crowd. This is not a knock on my contemporaries who go about life differently than me, just a quandry that I don't think I will ever understand. I don't see athletes as Gods and I wouldn't trade anything I own for a sports jersey, let alone spend money that I would rather keep on one. For me, money and everything else I do trumps anyone's won-loss rcord.

I see people in their 60s still arguing and fussing over their sports favorites and I smile the same smile that creases my cheeks when I see them still trying to dance the Twist anytime they hear Chubby Checker sing it. I want to change the subject and ask them what they think of the violence exploding in our country and elsewhere in the world, or maybe bring up my thoughts about an impending election but then I remember, this isn't the time nor the place and certainly not the people to engage in matters that mean more to me than last night's loss for the Wolverines. Their loss was a cause for celebration for people that don't like them and who am I to spoil what is so amusing or important to them?

So instead of allowing myself to be their sounding board (as if they will ever have enough of those) I will concentrate on my own endeavors; I am writing an entry in a blog right now and before I finish I will have to feed my dogs and do a few other domestic chores, and then I will spend a little time promoting my books, checking the sales of them and then go about whatever else the day will bring.

Michigan lost last night and so did the Pirates, but had they both won I still wouldn't change anything about how I will spend this day. The winners will move on and so will I. I get another day older today and there is something else about that my friends in the hometown bleachers will have difficulty coming to grips with; I came to grips with it! I am no longer among the young, I am not a college sports Hell Raiser and nothing the Wolverines could have done last night would have made me wake up feeling giddy and eager to act like one. I keep finding ways to embrace being in my 60s and one of them is the peace that comes with knowing I have done enough with my life to set more meaningful goals that have nothing to do with sports frenzy. I guess in that regard I am the luckiest guy I know. I got here by being different. Being old isn't so bad that I need to fly a Michigan flag from my porch to feel better about it. We are all racing toward death at this age even though some don't want to think about that, and for some, never letting go of a particular passion and never throwing away old toys might be an acceptable distraction from facts but not for me.

I hope my favorite sports teams win every game they are capable of winning, but if they don't, there is always next year. I hope I am still here then and if so I will still like them, and if I am still around I will only be another year older and I will have to keep finding ways to sort through my own priorities and accomplish more than just be an aging cheerleader. Those fans that only like Ohio sports teams will spend some time today watching a clock and staring at a calendar to countdown the days, the hours and minutes before the OSU kickoff to a new season. Meanwhile I have no idea who Michigan plays next week and it really doesn't matter that much to me, only a little. Instead what matters most today is keeping my surroundings simple and staying as healthy as I possibly can.

Go Blue!