A Little KU-MU and A Lot of Perspective

For me, this past holiday weekend was about KU sports and about giving thanks for all of the blessings in my life. As I headed into the long weekend, what I didn’t realize was that it was also going to be about strong feelings of love toward a family I have never met.

All week I anticipated the KU-MU game in Arrowhead Stadium. I had my tickets. I had my tailgating plan. I had the Saturday ESPN Sports Center and Gameday broadcasts set on my DVR. My wife had planned a special game-day breakfast. I had my hat, gloves, long underwear, coat and hot chocolate ready. I scoured the internet for any and every story I could find about the game and about the Jayhawks.

My heart rate increased every time I thought about the game and the environment that I would be a part of in and around Arrowhead Stadium. I thought time and again about everything riding on this game and how KU and Missouri may never play another rivalry game with so much significance during my lifetime.

I spent countless hours emailing with my friends about every aspect of the game. I let them know that my biggest fear was that KU’s football team would do what KU’s basketball team did last year in their Elite Eight game against UCLA, which was beat themselves by doing things they hadn’t done all season long. Against UCLA last year, the KU basketball team missed something like 20 layups. That hadn’t happened all season. They didn’t play their best game and they played out of character and beat themselves.

So here I was in Arrowhead Stadium watching the same thing happen to KU’s football team. My worst fears were realized as Todd Reesing, playing with a glove on his throwing hand for the first time ever, threw two interceptions after having thrown over 200 passes without one. Kicker Scott Webb, who had been solid this year, missed two field goals. KU’s defense, which had risen to the occasion so many times this year, gave up completion after completion on 3rd and long. Our normally steady wide receivers dropped passes and ran incorrect routes. Our coaching staff inexplicably gave Jake Sharp one rushing attempt. Our offensive line got pushed around. Our defensive line got very little penetration and were exhausted after being on the field for so long.

In the end, we all know what happened. The Kansas Jayhawk football team lost by 8 points to our hated rival, the Missouri Tigers. Everyone from players, coaches, family members, students and alumni had invested so much time and energy into this game only to come away with that numb feeling that accompanies virtually every loss.

I was going to feel sorry for myself and all of Jayhawk Nation, but that’s when, as so often happens when I get caught up in the fast pace of life, I was served a full dose of perspective.

Sunday morning my wife got a phone call. It was from a good friend of a woman
(we’ll call her Jane) that my wife had just hired on Wednesday from another department within the company. This was a great promotion for Jane, who was in her early 30's and I believe the mother of 2-3 children. My wife told me how happy Jane was about this new job opportunity, what a perfect fit she was for the role, and how Jane and her husband (we’ll call him John) were going to celebrate over the long holiday weekend. John was also going to the KU-MU game and I imagined that he must have had the same sense of anticipation leading up to the game that I did. I’m pretty sure John was an MU fan, but as you will come to see, that doesn’t matter.

After the game, John and four of his friends decided to do some off-roading in the Hummer they were driving. I imagined that this was something that they had done several times over the years. From what I’ve been told, they went up a steep hill figuring it was a downward hill on the other side. Unfortunately, it was a straight drop-off. The Hummer fell several feet and 4 guys walked away.

John didn’t.

So while normally I would be feeling down and frustrated by KU’s loss to MU, emailing friends about everything that KU could have done differently, analyzing how a play here or there could have changed the outcome, scouring the internet for all the articles I could find about the game, I’m not. The truth is that I just can’t stop thinking about John.

I didn’t know John. I didn’t know Jane. I just knew they were a young, happy couple celebrating a great moment in their lives and looking forward to a brighter, better future. And then it all came to a sudden, inexplicable stop. I can’t help but think about how unfair it is. No one deserves going through something like this.
More importantly, I can’t help but think how much time I spent reading, writing, texting, worrying, analyzing, cheering, and agonizing over a KU-MU football game hyped as “Armageddon at Arrowhead”. It’s all so painfully insignificant right now.

It’s a cliché, but it’s one of the statements I’ve come to appreciate as life slaps me time and again with these perspective-filled moments: LIFE IS TOO SHORT.

I’m sad today. I’m sad that KU lost in Arrowhead on Saturday night. I’m sad at how Jane, John, their children and their families’ lives changed forever in an instant.

At the same time, I’m happy. I’m happy for the incredible Jayhawk football season. I’m happy that basketball season is just getting underway. I’m happy that I have a loving wife, family and friends. And I’m happy that God gave me the ability to realize just how fortunate I am and to not take anything for granted. Some people live their entire lives and never realize that. I have lost so many people close to me in the short time I’ve been on this earth and I live my life as a tribute to them. And now John is going to be a part of that tribute.

I don’t typically ask readers of my column for favors, but today is different. After you finish reading this, please say a prayer for John, a prayer for Jane, a prayer for their children, a prayer for their families, and a prayer for yourself and your families.

Keep Rockin’ and Chalkin’,

Mic
www.jaytalkers.com