“I imagine folks in your part of the world are sad about the loss last night. My favorite part of sports, though, is that there is always another season to look forward to (the mantra that allowed me to grow up as a red sox fan without slumping into depression every October…)!”
My nephew left this comment the other day on my post “Sports and the Narrative of Life”. What deep wisdom he voiced in the phrase “Always another season…”All week I have thought about this phrase – There is always another season of sports. There is always another season of fashion. There is always another season for the ballet, for theatre, for Pottery Barn’s decor.
King Solomon, renowned throughout the ancient world for his wisdom, speaks to this in Ecclesiastes in the Bible. The old but well-known words “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted, A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh….” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4) never fail to make me pause. Whenever I read them I feel a hope spring up – looking to a new season keeps hope alive. Even as the cold and grey of winter is heavy in February there is hope, always hope, in the spring that will follow.
I have no idea what season you are in. It could be a season of learning to love and looking forward to sharing a lifetime with someone. It could be a season of chaos with kids going 10 different directions and an inability to connect with your spouse, feeling like all the chaos has wreaked havoc on your relationship. It could be a season of grief where you are leaving a place you love, or grieving the life of someone you lost. It could be a season of healing, running from an addiction that in the past has claimed your life. Perhaps a season of longing – longing to get pregnant, longing to be healed, longing for someone to share your life with. It could be a season of anger and frustration; peace and security; aging or sickness. Whatever the season, recognizing that there is always another season symbolizes hope.
One thing we know about hope – it is not a sickly sweet sentiment, but rather a hard-nosed determination. Václav Havel, a Czech writer says this: “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
So in the season you find yourself in may you have hope and the conviction that all will make sense.
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Marilyn R. Gardner 