Some 9 years ago or so, when the Philadelphia Eagles opened their new stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, I decided to buy season tickets. I'd never had season tickets to anything growing up, and I thought going to games might be a nice tradition I could establish with my son Ben who was a young teen at the time. For the next 6 years, it was just that - a great ritual we enjoyed together. While I missed sharing those games with Ben when he went off to college, it did present me with the opportunity to invite friends who might rarely have an opportunity to attend a game live. Today was one of those days.
I titled this post "Kindness or Cruelty?" because it so often is a little of each! The kindness part is that I got to enjoy catching up with an old friend and business associate that I rarely get to see more than once or twice each year. I make sure to invite him to a game each year since he's a big Eagles' fan and probably wouldn't get to go otherwise. We always enjoy our time together talking about sports, our families, business, and life. And today was no exception.
The cruelty part is that watching an Eagles' game is never easy. As any longtime fan knows, they have a way of teasing you with the possibility of greatness and then replacing your excitement with utter despair and disappointment as they find a way to lose yet another game that was virtually "in the bag." This has been going on for some time, and never seems to change. And each time we come back for more, hoping the result will somehow be different.
So while my gesture to invite my friend and spend quality time with him was one of genuine kindness, the result may have ultimately felt more like cruelty! And we'll do it again next year . . .
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