Remember the competitive, scrappy and sometimes violent Media Softball League?

We played on hot Sunday afternoons.  Fights on the field would ensue.  Fisticuffs.  Ejections from the park.

I had a problem with turning a double play.  To this day, I’ve never done it.  I could usually make the play at second, then my adrenalin started juicin’ and I’d overthrow first…always!!!  It became more predictable than a PETA protest.

During one game, after a particularly alarming overthrow, my son, a Little League All-Star at the time, approached the dugout and summoned me for a conversation through the chain link fence.

Casey:  “Mom, I have something to tell you.”

Me:  “Hey, Baby, need something to drink?  You doin’ okay?”

Casey:  “I’m fine, Mom.  But you’re not.  Listen to me.  You know how you’re over-throwing first?”

Me:  “Um.  Yeah.”

Casey:   ”Try rolling the ball to first.  But roll it with conviction.”

That’s when the word conviction, out of the mouth of a child, got my attention.

Conviction is cool.  To me, it evokes instances of out-of-the-ordinary passion, a confidence in a belief so strong that the courage to act on it comes easy.

I never got the courage to roll the ball to first, but now I wonder what would have happened if I did.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 am and is filed under Philosophy, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.