Family Adventures: Brooms and Hobbits

It's been a long time since I was last a member of an athletic team, not since college intramural basketball, I think. That was nearly 17 years ago. I haven't done the team sport thing as an adult much at all, and much to my own regret. While my athletic talents are modest at best, I enjoy playing anyway.


Photo (not us) via Madison on the Cheap

In my experience, it's relatively easy to get adolescent-to-young-adults on the same page in an athletic contest whereas it gets more complicated as we get older. On our broomball team, for instance, I'd say there's quite a range not only in talent and experience but also in competitive inclination. Some are eager to win in that way many children (okay, boys) are taught to seek some ill-defined sense of superiority. Others are just in it to have a good time. To my mind, both attitudes are just fine as long as you're willing to embrace them. If you want to win, learn to play, invest, be purposeful. If you don't really care about winning and just want to enjoy the affair as a social activity, make the most of that aspect. The trouble is when you have people of both inclinations on the same team or, perhaps even more complicating, when individuals are torn between the two desires.

Personally, I'm prepared to go in either direction. How's that for a cop out? It's the tweener state that drives me nuts. Forced to choose, I guess I'd rather invest in winning. More to the point, I think I'd genuinely enjoy learning to play well, win or lose. I did a little bit of research on the ol' Web and found this. I think it's as good a place as any to start.

Oh, we lost again: 5ish-1. We have a bye this coming weekend.


Image via WhatCulture!

On the home front, Our Girl and I got started on The Hobbit this past week. So far, we're averaging about four pages a night so we should be able to knock it out in a few months. We've done longer chapter books before - the first three Narnia books, for instance. She seems to be enjoying it so far.