Giants Baseball

March 8, 2022

This is not an essay about baseball.

Rather, it is a meditation on the differences between people, and on the possibility of overcoming or at least transcending those differences so that, if we can’t live together in harmony, we can at a minimum coexist in tolerance.

Several recent incidents in my life and in the world have caused me to ponder how common it is for individuals, groups, and nations to experience conflicts.

Two days ago I approached the front door of a house in my capacity as a survey researcher. Previously the married couple had told me that they were too busy to talk to me, but that I could come back another time. But before I could ring the doorbell this time, I overheard the husband and wife arguing about something. Deciding that that was not the best time to gain their cooperation, I beat a hasty retreat.

A week ago I enjoyed a wonderful family reunion. But one member of my family wasn’t invited, someone who has succeeded in alienating several of us. I’ve never been close to him, and we haven’t spoken in over a year.

There is a woman in one of my hiking groups with whom I have a difficult relationship. I know that I should feel compassion for her, as she has a lot of psychological and emotional problems. And sometimes I do feel sorry for her. But mostly I just don’t like her, and she feels the same way about me. Last week she threw a tantrum, directed at me, as several other hikers watched in awkward silence.

And of course we are now witnessing the mother of all tantrums, the psychodrama of Vladimir Putin’s most recent invasion of Ukraine. Not content with seizing Crimea and portions of eastern Ukraine in 2014, and parts of Georgia in 2008, the psychopath is determined to make the Soviet Union great again by reconquering the people of Ukraine and possibly other former Soviet republics and vassal states. Looks like with Ukraine the Russian bear bit off more than it can chew. Poor Vlad.

While my thoughts and prayers have been with the courageous Ukrainian fighters and suffering civilians, I will admit that earlier this week I sent some sympathetic energy to Mr. Putin, as well as to the nutty woman in my hiking group and to the dysfunctional family member who was excluded from our reunion. Why did I send positive vibes to those three individuals? Partly because their delusional behavior awakens pity and sadness in me. And partly because any resentments I feel toward them is harmful to me, not to them. My anger is self destructive, so it’s in my self interest to not hate them. I may not be as evolved as I would like to be, but I’m tryin’.

It seems that people and nations usually don’t resolve their differences; they just learn to live with them, or to deal with the aftermath of the wars or interpersonal conflicts. Sometimes the best we can hope for is to muddle through and live our lives as best we can while continuing to endure our conflicts, prejudices, and resentments. Many of these tensions may take generations, or multiple incarnations, to resolve.

This morning I had a dream in which I determined to encourage my friends to stay positive during these crazy times by focusing on something that might unite us as human beings. Since most of my friends live here in northern California, it occurred to me that we could overcome any differences we might have by agreeing to support our local professional baseball team. So I decided to send an email to all of my friends with that message. In the subject line of the email I typed “Giants Baseball.” Before I could write the rest of the email, I awakened from my dream.

Is it just a dream to imagine that we humans can overcome our differences to support a common goal?

Maybe our common goal could be saving our planet from climate change in order to ensure our survival as a species.

Or maybe the best we can do in a time of war and economic uncertainty is to just be nice to each other.

I wish the Ukrainian people much success in repelling the Russian invaders and healing their country.

In the meantime, go Giants!