We hit the middle week of the middle month of 2020, and so many have said recently they can’t wait for the year to be over. While there is no doubt that the last few months have been so difficult for the myriad of reasons we continue to see, this past weekend watching some people play catch on a beach for the first time I was reminded that the simplest of things can bring us joy and a respite from despair.
We continue to live in a fluid world, and our business, despite the positive outlook of return to play, is anything but normal and will be for some time. Yet today we continue to see signs of hope (other than where baseball is)…record engagement in gaming sales and engagement, solid numbers from live sports that have returned already, even pictures of some socially distanced youth sports starting to bring people back to play again. A longtime colleague who has struggled to build a once burgeoning business called today to talk about the learnings he had had listening to an analytics podcast and how his skills of selling could and should be reimagined by better understanding the new elements that a consumer, and a brand may want to buy.
We have also heard and seen the record number of bicycle sales, of leisure equipment and even of pools as people prepare for a summer that may not have full blown camps, but can have blowup tools and family toys of ever size. Read the great Steve Rushin and a summer of WHAM O that awaits, for more fun thoughts.
What is all this point to? Hope. Hope is the one thing no one can take from us, no matter how much despair, frustration, even anger we experience. As we go through a graduation year like no other, graduates and families of every age feel like the experience and acknowledgement of such a pivotal step has been robbed from them…and rightly so. What has not been robbed is the hope of tomorrow…and I found it interesting that this weekend the New York Times republished a graduation speech given by EL Doctorow to his alma mater, Bronx Science. The words ring true even today…
It is possible that our great technical achievements notwithstanding, our moral natures are not keeping up, that we have the brains but not always the hearts to do the right thing. But there is always hope, and there is always the next generation coming along to make things better. So that the circumference of darkness, which turns out to be the questions for which science has no answer, can eventually be illuminated.
So now I will tell you what nobody has told you before this; that we older folks are waiting for you. We’re waiting for you. Did you know that? It’s a fact. I look out from this stage and see a beautiful assembly of the American future.
And I’ll tell you something else about which there is no question: Your parents are proud of you, your teachers are proud of you, and this alumnus of Bronx Science, ’48 — I’m proud of you, too. If I were a clergyman, I’d cast a blessing. But I’m a writer, so I say: Be brave. Be kind. Take good care of yourself. And carry it on.
Also, on the subject of hope, I give you this…the amazing, miraculous story of our Columbia colleague and Navy grad Bill Squires. The 66-year-old went home after 71 days in the hospital, more than half of that time on a ventilator, just over a week ago. We spoke Monday about his expanded faith in the power of hope…and of prayer, and you can read the whole story here, in a piece by David Bourne that is not paywalled in this week’s Sports Business Journal.
Is hope for the future easy to muster? No. can we derive great value from having and exuding hope to others? Yes. Those little things..a catch, a call, an email a text…mean more now than ever. They give us a sense of community and normalcy…and they provide yes…hope. Just ask our friend Squires.
