When I was a kid, Halloween was my favorite holiday. Soliciting free candy at every door in the neighborhood is like a child's wild fantasy come true. Then I got a little older and that favorite holiday became Christmas. I wish I could say it was because of the true, deep meaning of Christmas in celebrating the birth of Jesus, but it wasn't. It was because it was the one day of the year I might get the things I had been begging for year round as presents under the tree.
But in more recent years, my favorite holiday has become New Year's Day. This is not just because of the long-standing tradition that has developed between me and my best friend, of throwing the best house party of the year (though that is certainly a part of it). It is because the closing of the year and beginning of a new one provides a natural moment to reflect on the year that was, breathe, and think with new hope and expectancy of the year that will be.
Today I initiated the new year at Staples Center. Just 5 minutes from my house, I've only been inside the resplendent bastion of downtown once before. But today, I got to go to my first Lakers' game. The first half, the boys were cold and barely able to keep a 15 point deficit to the Sacramento Kings. Outlook was not good. But by midway third quarter, Lakers were back in the game having narrowed the gap to 6 points. After teetering too and fro through the fourth, the score was 108-106 Kings with just 4 seconds left in the game. Victory seemed unlikely, especially with 2 free throws just given to the Kings.
But by a small miracle, those free throws missed and a 3-point shot from Kobe just .1 seconds before the buzzer, the result was a very unexpected win for the Lakers. The crowd was screaming, confetti flying, for about 5 minutes straight. It was a great way to start the year.
In 2009, a good friend was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, my parents went through a financial crisis for the first time in their lives, my mother went on anti-depression medication, and I found myself nursing a rejection wound for the second time from the same guy. But I'm learning to let go of the control I never had, to believe in the things beyond this world and the incomprehensibly good God behind it, and just plain how to hope -- for real. Damn it, if it wasn't one great year.
As I think about my hopes and resolutions for the new year, I can sum it up in tonight's game. The outlook may have been downright bleak at points, and even to the end, no one could be blamed for calling it a lost cause. But I believe the 3-point shots happen when you least expect it. And God knows how I can least expect it. So as the game for this new year begins, I've got my game face on for the seeming lost causes before that 3-point victory shot. And I plan to let myself enjoy it when it comes.
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