JCC Floor Hockey

 

Juranka's Corner

Feb 13, 2006

Losing is sweet bliss

It can be the golden road
To sustainable contentment

It is a massage of the soul
Which seems like anything
But massage
For the ego

Golden road…
The color of the pine floor
Mixed with the intense yellow
Of the balcony railings
Mixed with the evening light
Of the early game
In the spring

Golden isn’t white
Or even like the light
On the gym-floor
In the summer
When it blares like noon
At 8 oc’clock

Golden isn’t yellow either

Anyway

Red won their first game
In quite some time
And their humility
during their losing streak was
an amazing thing to behold

They were intense and
especially
in those last games
perhaps
more heated than usual
for regular season play

still
during their losing streak
in their post-game behavior
they wore their defeat
with dignity

Green had a great game against black
and an early
ego-squandered
three goal black lead

quickly turned into a
series of internal combustion
misfirings

“took the steam out of us” said evan

“didn’t have the drive or hunger” said chamberlain

we had a horrible line change
but mostly we couldn’t work up that drive

was I like Forsberg
that I couldn’t take the regular season seriously ?

or was the victory
the week before against yellow
enough to put my ego
and my team’s collective ego on
over-confidence over-drive ?

its all possible

all that is certain is that
Evan was back from India
Aron was back from out west
John (our “veteran goalie” goalie)
(the Patrick Roy of our league)
was back from B.C.

the firkin was a blast

and I was reminded that
losing could be bliss.

That I lost the game
But won the love.

I love big slick
I’d lose to them any day

& I may have been intense on the court
& even unduly over-critical of Josh

But in the end it felt
Like another perfect Monday night

maybe it was Emily
and her laughter
uninhibited
unrestrained

the joy and power
of beautiful women
whose gift is simply
being themselves
&
that fills us all
with awe and bliss

Alison and Emily
contributed large
to the mad dogs’ drive

I remember the power
from those heady
deranged Carolyn victories

I may have promised my teammates
not to smoke before games
but I never promised them
not to get high
on meeting Emily
on the night before
the full moon
on Valentine’s Day


Juranka's Corner Archive

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