Ever Faithful
Monogamy is not natural. Infidelity is the norm:
It’s all been done before, every snickering bit of it, and not just by powerful “risk-taking” alpha men who may or may not be enriched for the hormone testosterone. It’s been done by many other creatures, tens of thousands of other species, by male and female representatives of every taxonomic twig on the great tree of life. Sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy.
Which makes me feel pretty weird, since I’m good at monogamy — at least the serial kind. It’s challenging enough to be in a relationship with one person. To be in two or more relationships at the same time? Egad. Maybe I’m just not talented enough to be promiscuous. And I’m not even very good at multi-tasking anymore.
I think my monogamous ways are migrating to other aspects of my life. This is usually one of my favorite weekends of the year: the start of March Madness. Sixteen games today, sixteen games tomorrow, games all weekend. But this year is different.
Since I started following the Mets seven years ago my interest in other sports and other leagues has almost evaporated. I grew up watching NBA and NFL games with my father, but I hardly follow those sports anymore. I rarely watch the NFL or the NBA on tv and I don’t read much about them. As for the Mets, I am watching every pitch of every spring training game that I can get, even after they take out the regulars and put in kids that will be in double- and triple-A this season.
I like being an enthusiastic fan, but I am a little concerned over this narrowing of interests. I don’t want to be like one of those Society of Creative Anachronism types who know what happened in October of 1575 but can’t name his state’s U.S. representatives. (I know someone like this.) There were a lot of things I wanted to do in the off-season, but I wound up wasting too much time following trade rumors. I still keep up with current events and read a variety of material. Spring has sprung and we’re planning what to do with the yard this year. Yet I feel that the Mets are expanding and taking over my life. Maybe I should have given up baseball for Lent, just to try to balance things out a bit.
At any rate, I forced myself to do an NCAA bracket, scribbling in my choices about 10 minutes before the first game started. And so far, so good. I’m batting 1.000 — having picked Michigan State and Xavier whereas, if I recall correctly, DP picked Temple and Georgia. The big game between USC and Kansas State is tonight, and I’d watch it. Except that the Mets play a spring training game against the Orioles and my monogamous nature demands that I stay true.
Let’s go Mets.
