Life's brackets

I just finished filling out my brackets for the men’s 2012 NCAA Final Four Tournament. Just knowing all the schools in it is a fulltime job. Having some idea of how they did and who they did it to, would take the work of an entire sports department.

So here is the secret. The color of the uniform.

As in horse racing, the color of the silks is all important in picking a winning ride. In March Madness the same is true. Only one black and gold team will get though this year.  Two wearing blue will make it. And either one in orange and white or one in red and white will fill out the last spot. (I am still undecided about Syracuse and Ohio State.) See how easy that is?

Ah, if life were so easy.  And if all of this were that predictable. The problems with both the brackets and with life are the surprises.  The team from nowhere that jumps up and scares the living do-do out of the rest of the field.  Bradley the last couple of years has managed to do just that.  I’ve got St Mary’s doing it this year.  I don’t even know where St. Mary’s is from.  I bet it is a Catholic university, though.

And in life, those surprises pop up all the time, as well.  A good friend of mine recently succumbed to cancer: his popped up on a running trip with buddies.  They were going to do some cross-country race and he found blood in his urine the morning of the race and decided to sit out that run. Blood in the urine – first telltale sign. The rest was down hill.  I put him in my win bracket, but the Big C won a decidedly lopsided victory at the end. To us it was a sudden death victory. For my friend it was an agonizing three years of pain and suffering.

Sometimes I wonder why life is like that.  Some people go in their sleep with nothing more than a sputter and poof, they are gone. Others, like my friend fight and hang on for months, even years.  Some very vile people go quickly and effortlessly.  And good people, really great people, are tagged with suffering and humiliation of a deteriorating disease.  Doesn’t seem fair does it?  John Kennedy said, “Life is not fair.”

But why?  Why is life so unfair.

Maybe it is for the same reason that the brackets can be so unfair.  A small school from nowhere, who has played no one we’ve ever heard of, steps into the big ring and knocks out a couple of TV’s darlings and the next thing you know, you’ve got a Cinderella story happening. Only in life, the surprises most often are not that pleasant.

But they say true champions are as gracious in losing as they are in winning.  And my friend was like that.  He kept his faith strong.  His life was a shinning example of being ready to face anything.  He was positive and in the very end, cheerful as one can be before slipping the bonds of this old rock.

If I had it to all over again, I’d put him in the win bracket.  I’d pick him over the Big C anytime.  Because the one thing the big C couldn’t do, was take his spirit. If only in life we could chant as we exited the big dome…”Wait until next year!”

Good luck to all your teams. And if you don’t win, keep the faith.

And remember, it’s just basketball…it is not life or death.