Osler's Razor

If you had a "like" button, I'd like this comment. I did end up writing something about their loss, about losing. We don't talk about how to do that.
 

This is a poem,of course...a series of haikus,really. I don't know anything about Lady Bears,except it is quite unlikely I'll ever be one...but,a poem I do know.
 

It's a lamentation, and a heartfelt one. So heartfelt, that I think it came from someone with a personal stake in that loss. I'm so glad they chimed in!
 

I was really disappointed in President Starr's letter to Baylor Nation following that loss. He is an extraordinarily accomplished attorney who should know that certain words and phrases might be better reserved for more disconcerting events such as terrorist attacks and school tragedies. "Our hearts are broken."; "...unspeakably frustrating..." I get his gist, but as a high-profile individual in a position of student leadership, it seems he is enabling or encouraging others to expend hysteria on what is ultimately a trivial matter. I mean, the thing reads like a dang eulogy. I've gotta think a simple, "We'll get 'em next year!" would've sufficed. What woman on that basketball team deserves to be led to believe that she contributed to breaking the hearts of her fans?
http://www.baylor.edu/president/news.php?action=story&story=128826
 

Oh, Anonymous, come on. To say you were "really disappointed" over a letter that you characterize as "hysteria" spent on a "trivial matter" is more over the top than Starr's letter. If, like Starr and many others, you had followed this team over 4 years of sustained excellence and bought into their ebullient personalities, and their commitment to a hope and a dream, you would understand the extent of the emptiness of that loss.

By no means is something like a basketball game comparable to a terrorist attack or a school tragedy, or a bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. But sports, and being a fan, gives us something in which to invest without crushing us when our hopes are dashed, and it's ok to express the depth of that loss in strong terms.

Those girls know they didn't let down their fans, and if they wondered, they've since been reassured. But those referees.....they did a bad, bad thing, even if, as you point out, it doesn't really matter. In that vein, it doesn't really matter what your perspective is on Judge Starr's letter, or what my perspective is on your criticism of him.

Judge Starr was doing merely what good leaders often do--giving voice to what the people feel. There'll be time enough for philosophical perspective later.
 

I think average leaders give voice to what the people feel. It's a recipe for never getting anywhere. Some call it pandering. Great leaders challenge towards alternative and new ways of thinking. I love sports, but I'm just concerned that they have become too much of an escape in our society's particularly trying times. And if one woman carries that loss with her for the rest of her life versus the few days that she should, then that is one too many. I trust your judgment that they've been reassured. Not trying to argue, just offer another perspective for consideration. Thanks for your reply. Also, I did not know what you meant by this: "There'll be time enough for philosophical perspective later." When would "later" be?
 

"Later" has already arrived, to my way of thinking. When Starr wrote his letter, the pain of the loss was still fresh, and any attempt at that time to put the loss into some broad perspective would have been out of tune with the moment.

I appreciate your perspective on the role of sports in our culture. You are right, but it's a largely harmless cultural obsession, in my view.