Lucy Moment

Often our disappointments morph our triumphs.

More times than not, as human beings, we tend to focus on the bad things in life.  That was my first  thought  the morning after Russell Wilson threw an interception with just seconds to go turning an apparent Seahawks’ victory into a  loss in this year’s Super Bowl. It was akin to Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown right before he kicked it in the Penauts’ comic strips.  Life is cruel that way.  One moment it looks like it is all going to work out, then disaster strikes and everybody wants to blame somebody. 

Years ago as a teen, I had a similar Lucy Moment when my Miami Dolphins were in Super Bowl XXVII against the Washington Redskins.  To this day, I can still remember sitting in front of my family’s TV hoping my team could hang on to a slim lead late in the game, during a pivotal play when the Redskins had a fourth and one.   The Redskins handed the football to their workhorse running back, John Riggins, aptly named the Diesel and all he had in his way was a much smaller defender, Don McNeal, trying to arm tackle him. 

 

What happened next was predictable, unless of course you were a diehard Dolphins’ fan hoping against hope.  All Riggins proceeded to do was shrug McNeal off like he was a bad habit and rumbled forty yards for the go ahead touchdown, from which my team would never recover. Disappointed hardly describes how I felt.   However, all the Redskins did was played the odds, big guy vs. small guy, and they had won.  Sadly, many people wanted to blame McNeal when in reality it was not his fault.  The truth is one play seldom dooms you, it is a series of plays during the entire game, lots of little decisions.  That night I learned that life can be sudden and final on some matters.  Some times we just don’t get what we want. 

  

During  Charles Schulz’s last interview before he died, the Peanuts’ creator lamented the fact that  Charlie Brown never got to kick the football from Lucy. In my opinion, when we encounter a Lucy Moment and life pulls the football away from us, we have two options. One, don’t let one moment define you but rather get up off the ground and take what you learned from the mishap and apply it to the rest of your life.  Two, we can go insane like Charlie Brown and keep trying to kick that football.

 

Remember, insanity is the very definition of doing something over and over again expecting different results and that’s a losing proposition.  Some issues or events, like interceptions in Super Bowl never resolve themselves.  The best way to live life is to live it fully, not fully dreading each day.

Lucy moments teach us to get back up and accordingly see things for what they truly are.

 

Swavel