Untouchable

I have a complicated relationship with sports.  The video above...I love that.  I don't love the reality, which is often nothing like the video above, but I love the idea of sports.

I want Zoey to play.  I hope that she loves it.  I hope that it provides her with opportunities and new perspectives, and bucket loads of friends.  I want to watch her grow and change, and win and lose, and get angry and feel joy.  I want to talk to her about it, and encourage her, and make sense of things, and help her solve her own problems, and come to her own conclusions.  I just want to be there when it all happens.  I hope that she doesn't have to deal with half of the sh!t that I had to deal with...crazy parents,  bad coaches, perennial losing, bad teammates, the inability to invest in her efforts more deeply...I just want her to be one of those girls.  I hope that she wants to be too.

I want to be the best sports parent ever.  I want to have perspective and timely involvement, and I want to leave her to figure some of the important things out herself, without the need for rescuing.  She doesn't have to be an All-Star. She doesn't even have to be good.  I just want her to love it, and in her own unique way, I want her to be untouchable.