I have another thing to be neurotic about. Logan has tryouts for the Junior Cats basketball team. It's one where they will be trying out and there will be cuts to survive.
I wasn't terribly successful at that sort of thing when I was younger. Logan has a lot more athletic ability, though.
I went out back and watched him shoot the other day and he looked pretty good. Better than most 4th graders I remember, anyway.
I know I shouldn't be worried about it. I know that deep down, my anxiety is because I feel that if he doesn't make the team, it's because I have failed him.
I shouldn't worry so much about basketball, though. Baseball, maybe that's true. He always displayed an interest and always put the work in.
Basketball? Not so much. We've got a hoop out back on our concrete pad. I don't push him to practice. I did show him how to do a one-hand set shot. At his age, that's hard, though. He still mostly shoots a two handed set shot.
He did show me the other night that he remembered what I showed him, though. He's a very coachable kid. Always has been.
I just try not to push. He gets enough sports as it is. No need to push more on him. As he gets older, if it's important to him, he'll seek it out more and more on his own. I should provide resources, as best I can, and let it go from there.
In this case, there's a rec league team available to him, too, and the Cats recommend that he play both. Try to get the kids as much basketball as possible. So, worst case and he'll just play rec, which is fine. That'll be enough exposure that if he doesn't make the Cats, he can decide whether he wants to put in the work to make the team next year.
I think most of my worries are normal parental neurosis, though. We want the best for our kids. We want them to be happy.
Still, we can't shield them from everything. He'll have disappointments to deal with over the years.
So far, really, that day hasn't come for him. Some people live such charmed lives. I used to think that in the end, kharma sort of evened everything out for everybody, but now, I know that's not true. Life isn't fair and some folks get to skate through it with minimal pain, while others have to pay through the nose for everything they get.
I almost feel like the folks who get used to the hard knocks, tend to continue to have to do things the hard way all their lives. The folks who just sort of always fell into it, continue to look for ways to fall into it.
This scientific studdy sort of confirms it, too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3335275.stm
Now, I really don't like to describe myself as having lived a life of hardship. In many, many ways, I'm the luckiest guy you'll ever meet. However, as I read an article like the one from the bbc, there is no doubt in my mind: I've got the "unlucky" mindset.
There were some formative childhood experiences I had that I believe made me that way. I was a naturally happy, outgoing and gregarious kid when I was very young, but a series of life-events and a few situations really wrung it out of me.
By the time I went to High School, I hardly said a word to anybody. I had almost no happy-go-lucky left in me and was mostly anxiety.
I just want Logan to keep the optimistic, happy side of himself for as long as he can. Though I think, one way or another, he has the basic tools to be successful and happy. Most of all, he's considerate, conscientious and careful. So, he has the basis to be a genuinely good person.
So, does the tryout mean that if he doesn't make it, he'll be unlucky the rest of his life? Nah. And sometimes things that appear to be our biggest failures end up being key, formative experiences that shape our life for the better.
Even so... I hope he makes the team.
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