No Vanity in Clapping

The crowd roared to a fever pitch.

Clouds sailed overhead in a big, azure sky. More than 20-thousand people waved and clapped, celebrating at a game of baseball. An American pastime stitched with tradition and determination and revelry. The baseball players, the fans. The guys in the press box.

They were all focused on what was happening on that dusty diamond.

And for a moment, I was focused on how we're all going to die someday.

I sat there, watching Reds fans swathed in crimson, mugging for photos, all the while wondering if we all looked like a bunch of shallow fools for grinning and glad-handing as the minute hand stroked closer and closer to death.

Shouldn't we be panicking? Running around and outfitting ourselves in armor or signing up for every vaccine known to man? Should we be crying in the streets, wrought with fear over the inevitable fact that our days are literally numbered?

Good, bad or indifferent, I fall victim to morose thoughts from time to time. They strike at the oddest occasions, but those moments of introspection remind me how tender and fragile we each are.

It's easy to chalk up life's levity as foolish. Around this blue pearl of a globe nations wage border wars, destitute children know the depths of hunger and hopelessness. Our fellow man toils with real tragedy.

It's true - life can hand us a bag of shit sometimes.

But in between those crises of heartbreak and devastation, we are given opportunities to connect with others, chances to taste success. We are offered moments to lead with love.

And that's what makes the rest of this mess worth it. Taxes, long lines at the DMV, traffic jams and meetings that feel like purgatory. I'd take it all to know the balance of my life tipped with more hugs with loved ones, nights of wicked laughter with dear friends, and fleeting chances of genuine human connection.

Will I get to play all nine innings of my life? Is mine a game The Ref will call short for stormy weather?

I won't know until I get there. And I can't worry about how long my game runs because it could force me to miss out on some great hits.

Until that time comes, I'm having a ball just playing.


Kate's Random Musings by Kate the Great is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.