Winners and Losers

“You win some; you lose some.” So goes the saying by which many of us (too many?) live our lives.
“Life’s one big game.” And in every game, in every contest, “they” keep score; someone wins and someone loses.
Maybe. That really depends, as do so many things in life, on how you look at it.
You don’t have to accept someone else’s definition of winning and losing. Ultimately, it’s how you define your own success that really matters.
Consider the 2008 Dragon varsity boys baseball team – now, THERE are winners! This has been an historic season, culminating in the first ever North Coast Section title for Sonoma Valley High School, and that championship game, a solid 8–4 victory, is still being replayed on local cable television.
We offer our congratulations, too, and we know that some of those lives have been changed by the experience. Some of those students view themselves differently now, with a confidence that they will carry into many other areas of their lives.
Here’s what we said when we wrote just a few months ago about another Dragon varsity boys team:
“Students are not on high school teams to bring glory to the school or the community, although that’s awfully nice when it happens. Instead, they participate in extracurricular sports as part of their education …. In practice and competition, they hone skills, they learn discipline, and most importantly, they develop character.”
Yes, we were writing about the basketball team, and its apparent loss when over half the team, including many seniors, were kicked off the team for violating school conduct rules. What a loss! And on the eve of league play!
But we refused to view those players as losers, and we hope they didn’t, either. No, they didn’t win at the game that they had set out to play; they placed themselves in a different game, though still with the opportunity to win. We can sometimes learn more from our mistakes, and we trust that is the case for the players involved. They don’t have to “keep score” the way everyone might want them to; they can keep score in, arguably, more important ways.
On Tuesday this week, four of our neighbors played another type of game, offering themselves to the community for selection as the Sonoma County Supervisor for District 1, which includes Sonoma Valley. They brought credit to themselves for HOW they competed. Scoring simply by vote count might be tempting, but none of them are losers for not having garnered the votes needed to continue on in that competition.
They challenged themselves to compete well and they met their challenge. They challenged the rest of us to consider their understanding and their vision, and we hope we met our challenge. They’ve gained by their participation, and in our view, consciously choosing to score on a larger scale, they’re all winners.
Getting the most points or votes isn’t always the true measure of glory. Victory comes in many guises, and we each can be victorious; let’s hope we’re playing the right games.