March Gladness

It's been a busy week.   My other gig is working at The JoyFM in Atlanta, and this week was our "Friendraiser Event."   The JoyFM is listener supported radio.   So, we were fast at work getting folks to partner up with the ministry!

I wanted to take a moment and let you know that the blogs will continue in earnest next week and that I'm sitting in a coffee joint watching...yes...college basketball!  However, I'm probably not watching for the same reasons most of the country is watching.  

I'm not in a bracket pool (or twelve.)  I don't have a dog in the hunt, and I could care less about North Carolina-Asheville getting hosed by the refs.   I do, however, consider The NCAA Basketball Tournament a gift, and that's why I'm referring to it as March Gladness.   Gladness in that it brings millions of people together that normally would not be.   Gladness that it creates fun and camaraderie in the workplace.   Gladness that kids who get the chance to play in the tournament can have the dream to one day cut down the net in one shining moment...and...gladness that I have yet another thing to talk to my brother about.

I love my brother so much.  We are very much alike in many ways, and in many ways very different.   Sports is our bridge.   He is a huge Duke fan (don't hate him.)  He went to Duke and has been a Duke basketball fan since the Gene Banks era.   Yes, my brother is older than me.

My brother is a big college basketball fan.   I am not.   We can talk baseball, football, golf and many other sports without either faltering with statistical knowledge or parenthetical history.   Basketball we cannot.   At least I cannot.   As Martin Short referenced in an old SNL skit, "I'm not that strong a swimmer."

However, I can talk to my brother about how Duke is doing in the tournament (They do take on Lehigh tonight...the school I spent my first semester.)  We can joke about the big "Duke-Lehigh" wagers we've made over the years, and we can laugh the buzzer beating shots my brother made a thousand times in our driveway in Trappe, PA.


Sports is a great way for us to relate to each other.   We have context for friendship through our love of The Godfather, Hogan's Heroes and pizza, too.   Point being, it doesn't matter how much or how little we know about sports, but considering others interests of value allows us to consider others more significant than ourselves.    When we're in that position, friendship and love is easy.