Pull Up the Roots

Greetings, everyone. And thanks for all your support and encouragement this week. I definitely appreciate it.

A few people also wrote to me expressing concerns about the motives for the project, which I suppose is reasonable. One friend put it this way: "I can only conclude you concluded you had a problem. Best of luck making change in 2008." Others feared that perhaps Cheryl had given me some sort of ultimatum, or at the very least that it was motivated by marital stress. (Somebody also joked that Cheryl must have threatened to withhold sex unless I gave up sports.)

I'm pleased to say that none of these are correct. If they were, I don't think I'd be keeping a public log of my progress.

The truth is that the initial motivation for the experiment was to write about it. Like many (most?) people I have always dreamed of becoming a writer, and over the past few years I've started numerous fiction projects. But invariably I've abandoned them, and always for the same reason - they lacked passion.

And then one night in December it hit me. Living without sports for a year and writing about the experience would definitely solve that problem. It would be like a literary version of "Cold Turkey" with some social commentary thrown in for good measure. The pain of my sports withdrawals would make for compelling drama, and my observations about a life without sports would add depth and substance.

So that was the original thinking. I ran the idea past Cheryl and she liked it right away. Then I bounced it off a few more people and the results were mixed but mostly positive. A couple of people suggested I blog it, and I obviously took that advice.

But now that I'm actually not watching sports and writing about the experience, I've had to think about my motives a lot more carefully. Otherwise there wouldn't be much to write about. And upon further reflection there are three primary reasons this seems like a very good idea to me (regardless of whether the writing project comes to fruition.)

Starting with the negative, I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge a grain of truth to my friend's conclusion that I concluded that I had a problem. Just before Christmas I went to my in-laws' house for the holidays. I arrived two days after Cheryl and the kids so naturally we were all excited to see each other. But after about a half-hour of catching up, I excused myself to go watch a delayed Cal BB game. I proceeded to waste the next 90 minutes of my life watching uninspired, losing basketball when I should have been spending time with the family. After the game, I realized what a waste it was. And I thought about all the times I had done something similar - too many to count - and I decided it was time for a change.

But I didn't have to go cold turkey to solve that problem. Simply cutting back my sports viewing would have been enough to get things under control. In fact, I think that's what most sports fans do.

But there are some positive motivations, too, and they are the ones that are driving me to go cold turkey. Mostly, I'm excited about this upcoming year because it will be the first time in my life I've made a conscious effort to pursue other interests with the intensity I pursue sports. I've never much cared for non-sports TV, and likewise my leisure time Web surfing has typically been limited to ESPN.com, SFGate.com/Sports, and The Bear Insider. During work hours, of course I check news sites like WSJ.com and NYTimes.com, but when I'm unwinding at home those are nowhere on my radar. And now all of that has to change. In fact on Friday night I was a bit panicked because I realized I had absolutely no leisure time sites to surf. But on Saturday I regained my composure and remembered The Onion.com and Slate.com, both of which were quite amusing.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I wanted to challenge myself, to shake things up just for the sport of it (heh heh). My life has been a case-study in stability. I've never had a mailing address outside of California and I've lived in the Bay Area since 1987. I own a house that is about 1 mile from where I lived in college and around the block from my first apartment after college. I've had pretty much the same friends since graduating Berkeley, with a few key additions over the years. I've only worked for four companies in my entire professional career, and if things go well I'll stay with my current employer till I retire. And I'm married with kids. Things move slow in my world.

So what could I really do to shake things up? Quit my job? Sell my house? Find new friends? Leave my wife and kids? Not a chance - those are all the best things in my life. But I could give up the Bears and sports in general just to see what happened. I could remove a fundamental pillar of my identity and then live through the repercussions. Anything could happen, but it would be worth the risk. My biggest fear going in was that I would fall into a deep depression. And it still may happen. March Madness may take on a whole new, literal meaning for me. But I think it's the right thing to do regardless. As a working stiff/family man, it's easy to fall into a rut and just do what you've always done forever. Changing things here and there has to be a good idea.

Fortunately, so far so good. Until next time....

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. If anyone is still reading, I'd like some advice. Sydney has been asking me to take her to a basketball game, and I thought that maybe a women's game would be a good compromise. I haven't seen a women's game since college, so it's not something I'd normally do. And since it's a bonding activity for me & Syd, and it gives her a chance to see women playing sports at a high level, it seems like it wouldn't be breaking the spirit of my resolution. I'm curious to know what others think. (I changed the settings on the site so you can post comments anonymously.) Thanks again, Chris.