These Are My JOTtings...

Respect for the Pain of Another

Just yesterday I experienced uncomfortable laughter from someone, who didn't understand another person's pain. The laughter wasn't directed at me, but I experienced it nonetheless.

"When Atlanta lost, he cried," said the new drama teacher in town.

Her boyfriend is a die-hard Atlanta Falcons fan. "He was dressed in his Atlanta Falcons jersey and everything."

She didn't appear to have any clue as to how disrespectful her laughter and her demeanor really were.

I understand that the American football championship, which is culminated in The Super Bowl, is a regional issue at best. Around the world football is traditionally the game played with the foot. We Americans know this game as soccer.

I understand that among American football fans the Atlanta Falcons are cheered mostly by people, who live in the Southeast. This narrows the focus of regionalism, even further. The people of the Northeast, aka New England, are having a party during these days. The people of the West Coast may be yawning, since no West Coast teams were even represented this year in the Super Bowl.

Yet, for Georgia and much of the Southeast this was a big deal. This was only the second time in 51 years of franchise history that our team had made it to the highest game. To have a 25 point lead and to lose the game in overtime by six points was devastating. It felt like "Snatching defeat from the jaws of Victory!" At least that is how it felt for us.

In all fairness we Atlanta Falcons fans should have the courage to congratulate Tom Brady and the New England Patriots because he did in reality, "Snatch Victory from the very jaws of Defeat!"

Is there any way to help the reader to comprehend the depth of feeling the Atlanta Falcons fans are experiencing this week? I think so. Let me try.

Did anyone else cry or feel deep sadness, when Katniss had to provide an impromptu tribute for her young friend, who died at the end of a spear in The Hunger Games?

Did anyone else cry or feel deep sadness, when Shelby died and M'Lynn wanted to "hit something" in Steel Magnolias?

Was anyone else shocked to see Kylo Ren kill his own father, Han Solo, in Star Wars 8, The Force Awakens?

Why did we feel sadness?
Why did we cry?
Why were any of these three incidents important to any of us?

The characters are not real.
The actors did not really die.
The situations did not actively affect our personal lives in any way.

Yet, we felt great emotion because on some level we identified with the players in the dramas.

American football fans identify with their teams in a similar way.

The loss on Sunday night did not actively affect our daily lives in any way. Life returned to normal on Monday the way it had for many Mondays prior to this week. Yet, I was too grieved to write on Monday in any significant way.

Why did a nation of people seem to be so grieved over the loss of Hillary Clinton in the last Presidential Election? Ah! This is the difference. Life is directly affected by the leaders we choose. Could Mrs. Clinton have caused great benefit to a whole segment of the population or the country as a whole? That is quite probable.

Did the women of this country feel they were entitled to have the first female President to be currently presiding over the affairs of state? Of this I have no doubt.

I have great respect for such a deep sense of loss. I hope that others will now have a better sense of the deep sense of loss that the Atlanta Falcons fans now feel. We felt entitled to this win, and it didn't happen for us either.

The difference in the degree of loss felt may be similar, though the impact of the loss has a world of difference in effect.

Football teams can regroup and go at it again in a few months.
The United States adjusts leadership in two, four and six years.

Yet, Respect for the pain of another is an on-going task.

I'm a member of the Rising Stars Program for 2016-2017