I am pretty good about not letting things out of my control dictate my emotions. Except sports.
When my team loses, I usually toss and turn half asleep replaying all the reasons in my head that night. I have to work hard to move on to normal life. Maybe that’s not healthy, but there’s a flip side too.
When my team wins, there is a kind of joy and camaraderie with other fans that is more than just fun. It’s a glimpse of something bigger. It’s a way of participating in things that bind us. It’s an inspiring and elevated form of play or ritual. It bleeds into normal life in good ways, and provides good lessons.
And you can’t really experience that joyful side of sports without being invested enough to experience that agony too.