Annie Binns | Life in the Fun Lane

I went to opening night of five-year old T-ball this week to watch a friend’s son play. I didn’t even know there was an organized sport that involved handing toddlers aluminum bats to swing at each other. I mean at the ball. It was pure insanity. Chaos. More fun than I’ve had in ages. These kids are really onto something, and it’s something that they’re going to forget as they get up in years – say, around seven.

It was glorious fun to be totally in the moment, laughing so hard that I almost peed. I guess I wasn’t really “in the moment” when I was fantasizing about winning $10,000 on America’s Funniest Home Video’s if only I had the good sense to bring my video camera (you can bet I’ll have it at the next game). But for me, being “in the moment” for more than 12 seconds a day is something to celebrate.

Afterwards, I knew I wanted to tell you not just about the game, but what made it so great in ways that you can use in your life when you’re not having delirious fun.

Annie’s Big Lessons Learned at a Little Game

You don’t need expensive equipment. I’m the last person who should say this, given my weakness for expensive cars – but at least I said it was a weakness. You really don’t need to spend money to play the game. The game of life is f-r-e-e. You just have to show up. The condition of your uniform is not going to be noticed by the people you want to play with. If it is — guess what? Those are not the people you want to play with!

Everyone gets a turn. Want to know when the inning is over? It’s after every single person has a turn. No one gets left out. In this life, this is your turn. Now this is where T-ball diverges a bit (okay, a LOT) — in T-ball, you might get more than one turn. In life, this is it, baby. Take it and play your heart out.

Mom is in the dugout. This one is figurative, folks. I’m not talking about your momma. I’m talking about having some support. It can be one person or a bunch of people. It can be your dog! For some of you (you know who you are) it can even be your cat. The point is, you can’t do this alone. Everyone needs someone, furry or otherwise, in their dugout.

They don’t keep score. This is my favorite lesson. I know there are lots of people out there who think that competition is the root of success. That people try harder when they keep score. That if you don’t keep score, how will you ever know who won? Let me tell you how — the smiles on the faces of those children at the of the game tell me who won. And the smile on my face when the time comes for me to pass out of this life will tell you who won.

Tweet This Post!