Sunday, 25 July 2021
Game Context
Today was a treat. I watched my Australian Rules Football (AFL) team, the Sydney Swans, play in a stadium, thanks to the lifting of COVID restrictions. It was special for me because the team rarely gets to play in the state I live in more than once every two years – if I’m lucky.
We booked the tickets intending for Al, a godson and fellow Swans supporter, and his girlfriend to come along. That was Thursday. Since then, his kidney stone operation didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped. On Saturday, he was back in hospital to have the inflexible and roaming stent removed. The stent dropped from his kidneys and began putting pressure on his bladder, which caused it to spasm.
Alas, he was unable to make the game because he was having an operation at the same time. Although Queensland lifted its border restrictions, my godson’s mother, Susie, who lived just south of the border, could not visit him in hospital. Susie had plenty of contact with Al, just not of a physical kind. As a poor substitute, we called him after the game. It was to see how he was faring after surgery.
Sportsmanship amongst Spectators
One of the things I love about going to an AFL game is the camaraderie that forms when you connect with other people who love sport – regardless of the team. Our seat selection placed us next to other Swans supporters, a long-time supporter of 66 years.
The thing that struck me was the difference in the approach to being a supporter. Our long-term supporter sitting near us liked to go down the path of shouting at the umpires to get glasses. Sure, I’m guilty of these accusations, but only at home from my lounge chair. And I’m even right some of the time, mostly though I’m deliberately obtuse.
The other thing AFL had over my origin state’s dominant code National Rugby League (NRL), was that fans and supporters mostly respected the umpires. Sure, there’s fun in blaming the authoritative representative over your team’s poor play or momentary stupidity. Or worse, still having to admit the other team is playing better! Don’t bring that brand of reasonableness to the game! Nah-uh!
Yet, my support philosophy encompasses a good play is a good play, regardless of the side who played it. And sure, I wish it had been my team that played it, but games by design typically have a winner and a loser. When I go to a game of AFL where my team is playing, I try to yell words of encouragement to my team instead of hurling abuse. The stakes are why you follow, to get the highs and feel the lows. The rollercoaster of emotions either playing or supporting. Oh, and lows can be so very low!
Keeping Abuse Away
Now, I keep my umpire abuse confined to the home environment because I deeply respect the umpires. It amazes me how quickly they have to make a call. The referees do not have the luxury of anticipating a state of play like a supporter on the sidelines. Umpires need to focus on the actual event and make decisions literally while on the run. Sometimes they trip up and see something that hasn’t happened, or from the angle, they’re viewing, making the wrong call. 👀
Nobody likes going to work and getting abused by random strangers. Hurling abuse at strangers and players just isn’t “cricket” (refer to Notes). Whether we like it or not, the players and the umpires will work, and the field is their job. Yes, they get paid to go onto the field and do their jobs, but they do not get paid to take abuse. Players with a good mindset can use the energy thrown at them and improve their performance.
By the end of today’s game, there was great playful energy in the crowd, regardless of support strategy. It was fun to get out into the sunshine and appreciate the excellent competition.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Game Analysis
Carryover Cards
One card carried over from yesterday; Clinging to the Past, has come to fruition and moved from Future Energy to Recent Past.
Cross
The Fool is in the Now influenced by Ripeness. At day’s beginning was the Goal of Possibilities. Who’d have known a visit to the hospital was going to be a possible option waiting to happen. The Fool was me taking the opportunity to book an AFL game at a stadium. The timing, however, was right in a world of COVID-19 uncertainty. I set about opening us to Possibilities rather than sitting at home.
I bought the tickets in a bid to recreate the magic of friendship experienced long ago. It’s me Clinging to the Past (Recent Past). The notion came from the Distant Past, where I grew the idea from a seedling, Beyond Illusion.
Future Energy has a growing Awareness of an intuition of sorts, but I’m not sure what it is yet. It’s like a “meant to be-ness”, along the lines of fatalism but not to an extreme.
Base
The Dream are my Feelings about the circumstances; I had some romantic notions of attending the game and how it would turn out. Also, perhaps my perception of helping my godson out seemed more romantic in my head than it worked out in reality.
Others’ Views is that they felt they needed to tread on eggshells around me, in case I got tetchy; this is what the Fighting card says, anyway. I may have hung around a little too long at dinner, and my godson, who is too polite to ask me to leave so he could eat, might have been afraid to offend me. I would not have been offended, but he doesn’t know that, I suppose.
Hopes & Fears is Projections. Many today’s cards are about illusion or self-delusion, that is, The Dream, Projections, Clinging to the Past and even the Outcome card Past Lives hint at fear or refusal to look at changing happening Now. Perhaps The Fool has more to it than simply buying football tickets to the stadium.
My fear is I’m refusing to look at something, heart palpitations, and then projecting a haughty denial onto others, pretending I’m in tune with my mind and body (I’m good at this one). I hope someone else is doing this to me 🤔.
Past Lives is the Outcome. If I read Past Lives in conjunction with Awareness, perhaps there’s a breaking away of an old habit picked up somewhere in my past.
Again, I’m referring to Past Lives as in this lifetime’s many incarnations, not those associated with reincarnation. Although, there could be some of those past lives in the picture. Delving into more than one lifetime seems burdensome rather than helpful in most cases. Besides, most people like to think of having lives where they had significance. Nobody wants to know if they were a horrible person in a past existence!
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
Notes
Cricket was a game played by gentlemen. British well-mannered Brits would rise above pettiness and simply play the ball always being polite, no matter how dire the circumstances. This included cheating included not cheating – tis would be beneath them. Thus, t was done for the five-day tests too. The facade never crumbled, it was “CRICKET”.
