Devastation in Japan Puts Sports in Perspective

As I turned on the TV last night and started watching the horrific images coming from Japan, I almost didn't want to admit how much time in the past months I'd spent thinking about Pablo Sandoval's weight. Or how many hours I spent agonizing over Ben Roethlisberger's failed final drive at the end of the Super Bowl. Or even how much joy I got from the Giants' World Series win last November.

I'm not going to sit here and say sports don't mean anything, because they do. They mean a lot to a lot of people, myself included. They play a big role in our society, how we relate to each other and even how we feel about ourselves.

But it's times like this that we need to take a step back and see the big picture. And in the big picture, slugging percentage doesn't really matter.
What matters are the people, places and things in this world that bring us joy -- and appreciating the fact that we have them in our lives.

To many, myself included, sports is one of those things that bring us joy.

"Sports" is a lot of things in our society. For some, Sports are a distraction. Sports are a coping mechanism. Something we use to pass the time in our otherwise boring, vapid and unsatisfying lives.

But along with that, Sports is just as much an incredible source of joy. It's interaction with friends. Memories with family. Connection to your city. Sports has the ability to inspire us, to support us and to fulfill us.

The key is to recognize Sports as a piece of the much larger puzzle that is finding joy in life. Sports by itself won't get you there. It's when sports becomes the focal point that it shows its ugly side. When you get bogged down by ERA, poor officiating or a dropped pass -- that's when you run the risk of life being a part of sports, rather than sports being a part of life.

KB likes to make fun of me for having these massive epiphanies whenever my team loses. Whenever a season ends in defeat I declare, as if I didn't say it several months earlier, "sports really aren't that important. I need to take a step back.."

But when disasters strike like that in Japan, we all lose. And I think its important to take a step back, consider where we are, appreciate what we have, and go from there.

Especially for those of us who use sports to occupy to much of our time. It's a joy, no doubt. But it can also be a distraction from things that matter most. If Matt Cain has to miss a few starts, we'll all get by. If the 2011 NFL season is cancelled, things will work out. If that Giants fail to make the playoffs, life will go on.

Sports are a beautiful thing, but they are not the only thing.



Tsunami enters SF Bay / Credit Steven Winter

 It's a small world after all.