Laughter Sometimes Needs to be Contained

When football season rolls around, we greet a new season once more, and my family goes in different directions. We all root for the Big Twelve Conference. That is the conference that stretches from Texas up through Nebraska. My oldest son thinks the Cornhuskers of Nebraska are the only team that plays. My youngest son lives in Colorado and bleeds gold for his Buffalos. I root for the Oklahoma Sooners, and my husband roots
for them also, to keep peace with me.

We email back and forth on Mondays after weekend games.
When all three teams win, it’s a happy day as laughter seeps
through and across the lines of technology. If our teams lose, we offer condolences for each other. We’re really O.K. until our teams start playing each other. Then, the emails become shorter and smiley faces wear tears.

The Sooners are a team of good fortune. They have been
graced with the most success, at least, for the last several
years. My boys didn’t laugh when Oklahoma was crowned the best
in 2002, even for the sake of their mom’s favorite team. They
just prayed for a basketball and hockey season to make their
debuts. My oldest then turns his attention to the North Carolina Tarheels, and my youngest roots for the NCAA girls’ basketball schedule, since he coaches girl’s basketball where he teaches.

I’m learning that my laughter is too loud and boastful for their wounded hearts when the Sooners win. It’s been a while since Nebraska or Colorado won a National Championship, and this is serious business. When you bleed gold for your team, and when you only watch for The Big Red, this is a serious fanfare. After some real soul searching, because I still want them to keep in touch, I added this verse to the bottom of my emails. In Proverbs 4:13, it says, “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief.” I doubt they feel my heart sorrow in their team’s defeat.

Because few teams win back to back titles and hoping my
laughter for that 2002 championship was not short-lived, I did
not have the nerve to tell them “they Sooner need a new team,”

I want them to stay in touch.

This year is different. We’re not as serious. But the season is fresh and Oklahoma’s record is still untarnished.
I’ll hold my laughter down. January may bring a frown then I’ll Sooner wait till next year like my sons are doing now.

© 2005 Carol Dee Meeks