So no, I still haven't gotten over my mully-grabs from Sunday night. The Christmasy spirits have yet to lift that cloud. And based on a lot of the comments I've heard and read this week, you haven't gotten over your mully-grabs, either.
Losing leads to dissection. Where did it go wrong? Who can we blame? And so on... That's one way to beat the gloom: Blame some-one else. Assign the blame. Get the blame away from you. Far away. It's poor clock management, it's poor coaching, the play-calling is all wrong, why didn't you change that light-bulb and now look I stubbed my toe! You scream and it hurts, and screaming makes it hurt less.
I'm guilty as the next grump, dear readers. You needn't go back more than two or three posts to hear me assign blame. It's very human to do that. If it weren't so goddamned cloudy I'd be more sunny, and so on. You get lousy enough on the insides and pretty soon you're finding the cure for measles, peering over slides of little organisms down to the cellular level, looking for the culprit. I'm gonna getchya, you varmint, you ... you trouble-maker!
Step away from the micro-scope, dear readers. It's not that complicated, after-all. Making mistakes is also human and that's often the most realistic diagnosis, when you get down to it. A couple of plays, a couple of bad bounces, some-one goes the wrong way and it junks up the works. End of story.
Bring the focus back a bit, find the horizon and see the season as it stands, and just admit it: Assigning blame for the things that happen on this strange planet is an exercise in self-induced mad-ness. Football isn't science and most of us aren't scientists any-ways. We lost a game we should have won. It happens. But there is another game, another chance to win, and chase the gloom away. So stoke the wood-stove and pour another glass of egg-nog, enjoy the company of family and friends, and devote your-self to kind-ness, to simplicity, to knowing you can't control every-thing around you (at least until the off-season!). Your love of the Packers is fun but it doesn't change space or time. Focus on the things you can influence and quit feeling so lousy about a game.
New England doesn't even matter any-ways. We're gonna win the next two and the next four after that, and then you'll forget all about last week and that fat guy returning a kick to the door-step on national television.
Merry Christmas, dear readers,
FG
