It's a Mean Nasty World

I admit...I probably scared my softball girls Thursday night.  I scared them with the truth.

The world is not all sunshine and rainbows.  It's a mean, nasty place and it will keep you down if you let it.  It is not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward.  How much you can take and keep moving forward.

If it sounds familiar, Rocky Balboa says something like it to his son in the last (but I won't say final) installment of the Rocky movies.  It is very true: it is not what happens to you, it is how you handle it.  I pulled it out in the sixth inning, when we were behind, losing by five runs, but with some of our best hitters starting the inning.

The girls responded well,  but we came out on the short end for the first time this season.  I am very proud of these girls because they didn't stay down.  They could have easily folded when we were down eight runs in the fourth inning.  They could have just given up and allowed the ten run rule to take over.

After the game, I brought the same speech back out, with the reminder that we play these games to learn the lessons: friendship, loyalty, teamwork.  Oh yeah, never give up.  Scores of the games will be long forgotten, it is the players and coaches we will remember with those lessons.

It might be a lot of truth for 11-13 year old girls.  We live in a world that wants to dress them like tramps and see them starve to achieve a body they can never have.  I hope the lesson took some root, and they realize that they are worth going forward.  It's better than what Hollywood wants them to do.

So...am I off base?