Love = Boise State
People have problems everyday. It’s pretty much something you learn to live with at an early age. Today it was 15* when I walked to class. I did what I could to brace myself for the cold; thermal shirt, hoodie, jacket, gloves, etc but the fact of the matter was that I still froze my ass off. Now obviously in the grand scheme of things this wasn’t that big of a deal. After 10 minutes or so I was back in a fully heated environment and was good to go. Sometimes though there are problems that a kickass pair of gloves and a heater can’t fix. I think part of the reason some of life’s difficulties are so much worse than others is a matter of control. I can’t control the weather, so there’s no point letting it get to me. I think it’s this idea of being in control that allows us to dismiss some of the smaller setbacks in life, but also is what causes some challenges to completely floor us. Lately a handful of my closest friends all seem to being going through such times. I think partially the idea of a problem being “one’s own fault” is what causes the issue in question to be so traumatic. Btw, if you hadn’t figured it out yet, I was talking about love. :-P
Yeah, I know it’s cliché to write about love in an LJ but at least I’m not writing about my own problems! I consider this more of a reflection. Basically all of the crap that’s happening to all of my favorite people all at once gets the mind thinking. How can this really be worth it? If love is so fucking awesome how can it require people to go through such shit? One can easily come to the respectable conclusion, and I’m sure many people already have done exactly this, that love is, in fact, hugely overrated. Some other time I might feel more inclined to agree. Instead I propose this. Love isn’t some hyped up monster that inevitably chokes. *begin sports analogies, lets face it, they work* Love isn’t the Chargers or the Cowboys choking in the playoffs. If it was, I think people would become bored with even looking for love. If love was predictable, even in its failure, it wouldn’t have the same passion associated with it. You don’t get giddy with excitement when you think of some sure thing that always fails to live up to its name.
Love is the great underdog story. Love is the Boise States and the George Masons of the emotional world. It seems appropriate that one of the classic love tales, Cinderella, is used to describe such teams today. They share the great, and rare, ability to capture the imagination and hearts of many. If you look at society this makes even more sense. Love is almost set up to fail. Something like ½ of all marriages end in divorce. One can only imagine what the average number of relationships per person is in this country. The system is kind of rigged against us all. You HAVE to be super serious right away. You HAVE to get physical real fast or you don’t love each other. You HAVE to get engaged before you get out of college or you’re fucked. None of this makes it easy to truly find someone that makes you want to give up everything for them. But every so often there comes a shot at greatness. Take Boise State, and their amazing win at the Fiesta Bowl, as a perfect example. Anyone who watched that game knew they were witnessing something magical. There were countless times when it seemed horribly over for our Cinderella team. They kept working at it though, and given a tremendous amount of luck, they pulled off something awe inspiring. Its victories like this that have us coming back for more. Whether it be sports or love, you always secretly pull for the underdog. You want love to win, even if everything tells you it is never going to happen. When it happens, when you finally pull off the statue of liberty and attain the unthinkable, it’s incomparable. The feeling of being in love is absolutely unparalleled. Still, there are times it doesn’t work out the way you hoped. There are times when you work so hard at something, and you almost make it all the way and something just comes along and closes the book on you. When George Mason gripped the hearts of America last March with their final four run, there was a spark that had been absent for a long time in the NCAA tourney. Sure there are always the upsets in the first two rounds, but here was a team that was 2 games away from the title. They had faced “superior” teams game after game and still managed to claw their way to the Final Four. But then Florida came along, the dream was over. George Mason was done. Sometimes the end of a powerful love isn’t something easy to identify (Joakim Noah for example) but you always know when it’s over. You basically just want to shrivel up and die. There are two options here. You can bitch and moan about the Floridas of the world, but they’re always going to be there. Or, you can revel in the amazing ride that took you to where you were. George Mason’s run is going to be remembered for decades as something beautiful. It’s teams like them that are the reason you turn on the TV every March. You’re hoping for the rare and fleeting glimpse at greatness. It’s for the same reason that people keep coming back for another shot at love. It’s only natural to love an underdog.
P.S. To the people that indirectly cause me to write this: Don’t give up. You’ll have your Fiesta Bowl.
Yeah, I know it’s cliché to write about love in an LJ but at least I’m not writing about my own problems! I consider this more of a reflection. Basically all of the crap that’s happening to all of my favorite people all at once gets the mind thinking. How can this really be worth it? If love is so fucking awesome how can it require people to go through such shit? One can easily come to the respectable conclusion, and I’m sure many people already have done exactly this, that love is, in fact, hugely overrated. Some other time I might feel more inclined to agree. Instead I propose this. Love isn’t some hyped up monster that inevitably chokes. *begin sports analogies, lets face it, they work* Love isn’t the Chargers or the Cowboys choking in the playoffs. If it was, I think people would become bored with even looking for love. If love was predictable, even in its failure, it wouldn’t have the same passion associated with it. You don’t get giddy with excitement when you think of some sure thing that always fails to live up to its name.
Love is the great underdog story. Love is the Boise States and the George Masons of the emotional world. It seems appropriate that one of the classic love tales, Cinderella, is used to describe such teams today. They share the great, and rare, ability to capture the imagination and hearts of many. If you look at society this makes even more sense. Love is almost set up to fail. Something like ½ of all marriages end in divorce. One can only imagine what the average number of relationships per person is in this country. The system is kind of rigged against us all. You HAVE to be super serious right away. You HAVE to get physical real fast or you don’t love each other. You HAVE to get engaged before you get out of college or you’re fucked. None of this makes it easy to truly find someone that makes you want to give up everything for them. But every so often there comes a shot at greatness. Take Boise State, and their amazing win at the Fiesta Bowl, as a perfect example. Anyone who watched that game knew they were witnessing something magical. There were countless times when it seemed horribly over for our Cinderella team. They kept working at it though, and given a tremendous amount of luck, they pulled off something awe inspiring. Its victories like this that have us coming back for more. Whether it be sports or love, you always secretly pull for the underdog. You want love to win, even if everything tells you it is never going to happen. When it happens, when you finally pull off the statue of liberty and attain the unthinkable, it’s incomparable. The feeling of being in love is absolutely unparalleled. Still, there are times it doesn’t work out the way you hoped. There are times when you work so hard at something, and you almost make it all the way and something just comes along and closes the book on you. When George Mason gripped the hearts of America last March with their final four run, there was a spark that had been absent for a long time in the NCAA tourney. Sure there are always the upsets in the first two rounds, but here was a team that was 2 games away from the title. They had faced “superior” teams game after game and still managed to claw their way to the Final Four. But then Florida came along, the dream was over. George Mason was done. Sometimes the end of a powerful love isn’t something easy to identify (Joakim Noah for example) but you always know when it’s over. You basically just want to shrivel up and die. There are two options here. You can bitch and moan about the Floridas of the world, but they’re always going to be there. Or, you can revel in the amazing ride that took you to where you were. George Mason’s run is going to be remembered for decades as something beautiful. It’s teams like them that are the reason you turn on the TV every March. You’re hoping for the rare and fleeting glimpse at greatness. It’s for the same reason that people keep coming back for another shot at love. It’s only natural to love an underdog.
P.S. To the people that indirectly cause me to write this: Don’t give up. You’ll have your Fiesta Bowl.