Expecting to Win and Accepting the Consequences

My wife and I attended the Cardinals opener against Milwaukee last week. We were both excited to be going to the game as it was the beginning of a three-game series with Brewers.

Milwaukee is currently the National League Central Division leader. They are in first place ahead of the second place Redbirds. Both teams have recently had good players on the injured reserve. Cardinals outfielder Allan Craig just returned from physical rehab and Yadier Molina was scheduled to play in his first series since the “incident” in Milwaukee earlier in the month.

I mention all this to say that we were looking forward to a well-played and hard-fought game between two opponents who were vying for a leading position going into the last lap of the season.

What a disappointment.

As those of you know who follow the Cardinals, they’ve recently played poorly against Milwaukee and Tuesday night was no exception. The offense was virtually non-existent as the Brewers batted their way to a tenth inning 5-3 win. Our hopes for an easy win, or at least a hard-fought competition were never realized.

Driving home, we reflected on the high hopes we’d had for our team before the game started and it reminded me of how life treats us sometimes.

I’ve never been one of those people who are good at seeing the glass as half full instead of half empty. It always seemed to me that if you figured the worst was going to happen and it didn’t, you were ahead in the game. But rooting for our team came with the belief that they had both the desire and the ability to make it into the win column.

That’s what got me to the life-comparison thought. So often with relationships, or raising kids, or our finances we think we know the situation and the players well enough that we can comfortably predict what’s going to happen. Sometimes, that can even extend to things like mapping out our children’s entire school experience all the way to adulthood.  

And not all surprises are bad ones. What if you win the lottery? What if your kid is planning on attending community college but gets accepted to Harvard?

So, the real question, is how do we choose to respond to unpredictable circumstances that are thrown at us when we seem to be least prepared to deal with them?

I’ve not only asked that question in my personal life but also in my current role as a member of the local school board. How do we respond to news about student achievement, finances or employee issues to name a few?

Whether a person is a member of the school board or the parent of a student, it is imperative that we always remember our goal is to do what’s best for the kids and what’s best for the community as a whole.

There are some failed school board members who seem to make a career out of offering their take on the answer to that question on these pages. It’s no coincidence that their names are in the failed column.

The Mehlville-Oakville community has always been made up of folks who know the success of the community is directly tied to the success of our schools students. And in these hard times, some of the issues can seem overwhelming. But I don’t believe that any of the problems we face are insurmountable. The surprises that come to us this year will be both positive and negative. And the school board members will continue to look beyond them to the goals we are reaching for and the success that we promised we would work toward when we took the oath of office.

I would also ask that the members of the Mehlville-Oakville community stay engaged and focused on helping us get all the kids across the goal line. Whether you’re the parent of a student, retired or a student yourself. Whether you utilize the public schools, home school or have your kids enrolled in parochial school, we all have a role to play. That’s why it’s called a community.

The surprises that come may be viewed either as positive or negative. What will ultimately matter is how we choose to respond to them.

Let’s go Cards!