With my bike currently out of commission I’ve been walking to and from work twice a day. Even though I have to hoof it, I still go home for lunch. It would have been just over 5 minutes on my bike to and from but on foot it’s more like 15 minutes and that’s at my normal brisk walking pace. Unfortunately that means a lot less time to eat because of the 20 minutes of extra travel time but I still love sitting at home and eating in peace, even if it has to be quick.
Yesterday I saw that it would be about 90 degrees and with the prospect of walking over an hour in the sun, I thought it might be a good idea to break out a white shirt. Now I have about a half dozen white t-shirts but for some reason I wasn’t feeling any of them. Instead I was eyeballing one of my New York Yankees home jerseys. In case you don’t know, they are white with navy blue pinstripes. The fabric is quite light and comfy, even on a hot day, so I grabbed my Derek Jeter #2 jersey and headed out the door.
As I made my way down the sun filled street I started to feel a bit paranoid. I’m wearing a Yankees jersey out in public. The Yankees are a very divisive subject among sports fans. People love them and people hate them. I wear Bills jerseys and Sabres jerseys all the time, but no one cares. This is probably for 2 reasons; 1- This is Buffalo and most people here root for them like I do and 2- They stink. If either Buffalo team were any good perhaps there’d be some haters out there but in the case of our teams, most of the haters are the actual fans. People hate on success and quality. No one cares about failures, at least in sports.
The Yankees are another story. They are hated, they are rich and they won the last World Series. The people who hate them think they’ve ruined baseball and are the evil empire. Wearing their jersey is a surefire way to inspire “dialogue” if you were to go out to a sportsbar or any place where meatheads reside.
As I made my way to work I wondered if anyone in a car would shout at me. I looked at nearly every one that passed wondering when the moment would come and if there would be many of them. I made it there without incident. Then I went home for lunch and returned from lunch without anything happening. As I walked home from work that day I knew the haters were running out of time. Once I made it home I was going to change clothes for the Buster Keaton film.
With plans for the evening and a somewhat tight schedule I was marching my way home with purpose. My steps were quick and with each block they felt quicker. I tried not to look at the time but I did think of how long I would probably have and what types of things I could do in that time. I began to plan how I would get ready, how much time I could devote to each activity. I worked a little later than I should have but it didn’t matter. I could figure it out and compose a new plan on the fly as I was making my way home. It’s funny because anyone outside of my head might think I am acting spontaneously but internally I know I just changed my plans and I’m following a new one. My life is all about plans. I either have one, I’m thinking of one or I’m following one.
When I turned the corner onto my block my plan was all set, I knew what I had to do and I would be able to easily make it on time to the movie. At this point I was thinking of contingency plans in case something went wrong and then “YANKEES SUCK!’. A guy flew past in his truck but he made sure to let me know how he felt about the Yankees. I don’t know the guy, he doesn’t know me but because I wore the jersey of a sports team he can’t stand, he felt the need to scream at me. The first thing I thought was people are awfully brave when they are in a car and you are not but the second thing I thought was what if everyday life was like sports?
Sports bring out some serious passion, joy and unfortunately, hatred in people. What if people acted like “sports fans” all the time? It would certainly make life more interesting… probably not in a good way but now I’m writing a script for a short film exploring just that concept. It’s going very well and hopefully one of these days, we’ll shoot it and then you’ll view it. All because this guy yelled at me. Talk about turning a frown upside down and turning a negative into a positive. That’s me, always thinking, always planning.
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