BirdsCommaAngry
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In 10 TIPS FOR SEAHAWKS FANS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SUPER BOWL LOSS, an article by Wyatt Arndt based upon his experiences in losing a championship game in a similarly heart-breaking manner as we did, he notes a pattern about how sports fans attempt to understand what happened by asking why. Among our fans, this pattern is present and present in abundance. Why didn't we give the ball to Lynch? Why did we call a slant? If we called a pass because of time constraints, why did we let so much time run off the clock? If we had to pass, why did we not threaten a run and pass off play-action? Why not a fade? Why pass to Lockette of all our receivers? Why didn't Lockette outstretch his arms more?
For me, a typical explanation like "This is just how people cope" is boring because it involves no detail as to why a pattern exists and those details are what one may actually learn a great deal from. In the case of our coping and Wyatt's calling of attention to a specific pattern, it reminded me of a study referenced in David DiSalvo's book, What Makes your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. It also made me take a trip down memory lane to attempt to explain why my more unique reaction to SB49 was what it was.
The study DiSalvo referenced involved monitoring the brain patterns of people when faced with a piece of paper with either a compete circle or an incomplete circle with one part of the edge not quite connected. That's all. What they discovered was that we drastically prefer completeness over incompleteness. Most subjects were bothered by the incomplete circles and some to the degree that they would use a pen if available to complete it. This offers insight into so much of human nature. It's a possible motivation for why we attempt to explain and rationalize everything despite how little we often actually know about ourselves and what we've been through. It's also a possible explanation for why someone like myself will experience a change in feeling as strange as the one I'm about to describe in the next paragraph. Ultimately, though, it demonstrates our reluctance to accept the unknown.
For me, when the Seahawks lost the Superbowl, it was disappointing but in a really inconsequential way. For example, I was way more disappointed by the 41-7 loss to the Giants by the Charlie Whitehurst lead Seahawks during Carroll's first season here. By conventional standards for football fans, that statement simply seems insane to make. One is a blowout during a rebuilding year under a new HC with the backup QB at the helm and the other is the freaking Superbowl! But this seemingly strange experience exists because my disposition toward the outcome of football games has changed so drastically over the last few years. Lately, I've been very curious as to why that is and some of the answers might surprise you and ideally, even help prevent you from suffering the pitfalls of this loss anymore than you have to.
Some of my response is innate as introverted people like myself are going to be more inclined to analyze and even take control of their innermost thoughts but I don't think this is enough to separate me from the preferred reaction of sheer overwhelming disappointment. I think I've reacted this way ultimately because seven years ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I used to hate telling people this because it compels others to show a degree of shock or concern when my experience with cancer was as ideal as could be. I had a very treatable form of cancer that was caught early. I was insured and born into a family capable of covering much of the expenses. I felt there are people who have their lives yanked onto a very different trajectory by cancer and because my experience was ultimately a flirtation with the mere prospect of untimely death that I wasn't one of them.
But I am.
What cancer did was take all those grand thoughts we tend to bury under the practicalities of everyday life, like the meaning of life, what happens after death, why we're here, what our purpose is, etc., and made me begin to unbury them. It made me face all those incomplete circles I penned into completion with simple beliefs and undetailed answers. What began as a rather ugly exercise in trial and error has since taught me that it isn't the answers that absolve us from the questions that are impossible to answer; it's acceptance in how impossible they are to answer. With time, I've become increasingly more skilled at this act of acceptance and when the outcome of SB49 reared it's ugly head, I found my hopes weren't crushed or my emotional investment wasted. Instead, it was like watching any great movie with a riveting but unhappy ending. I'm just glad to have experienced it.
Thus, I think about others who have learned to be more accepting of the unknowable, like agnostics, and I'm curious about how they've come to that mindset despite their internal aversions to incompleteness. I'm wondering if they too are coping better with the loss as a result.
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10 TIPS FOR SEAHAWKS FANS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SUPER BOWL LOSS:
Link: http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/02/tips ... bowl-loss/
Thread on article: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=108295
David DiSalvo:
Website: http://www.daviddisalvo.org/
Book: http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/s ... e_opposite
For me, a typical explanation like "This is just how people cope" is boring because it involves no detail as to why a pattern exists and those details are what one may actually learn a great deal from. In the case of our coping and Wyatt's calling of attention to a specific pattern, it reminded me of a study referenced in David DiSalvo's book, What Makes your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. It also made me take a trip down memory lane to attempt to explain why my more unique reaction to SB49 was what it was.
The study DiSalvo referenced involved monitoring the brain patterns of people when faced with a piece of paper with either a compete circle or an incomplete circle with one part of the edge not quite connected. That's all. What they discovered was that we drastically prefer completeness over incompleteness. Most subjects were bothered by the incomplete circles and some to the degree that they would use a pen if available to complete it. This offers insight into so much of human nature. It's a possible motivation for why we attempt to explain and rationalize everything despite how little we often actually know about ourselves and what we've been through. It's also a possible explanation for why someone like myself will experience a change in feeling as strange as the one I'm about to describe in the next paragraph. Ultimately, though, it demonstrates our reluctance to accept the unknown.
For me, when the Seahawks lost the Superbowl, it was disappointing but in a really inconsequential way. For example, I was way more disappointed by the 41-7 loss to the Giants by the Charlie Whitehurst lead Seahawks during Carroll's first season here. By conventional standards for football fans, that statement simply seems insane to make. One is a blowout during a rebuilding year under a new HC with the backup QB at the helm and the other is the freaking Superbowl! But this seemingly strange experience exists because my disposition toward the outcome of football games has changed so drastically over the last few years. Lately, I've been very curious as to why that is and some of the answers might surprise you and ideally, even help prevent you from suffering the pitfalls of this loss anymore than you have to.
Some of my response is innate as introverted people like myself are going to be more inclined to analyze and even take control of their innermost thoughts but I don't think this is enough to separate me from the preferred reaction of sheer overwhelming disappointment. I think I've reacted this way ultimately because seven years ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I used to hate telling people this because it compels others to show a degree of shock or concern when my experience with cancer was as ideal as could be. I had a very treatable form of cancer that was caught early. I was insured and born into a family capable of covering much of the expenses. I felt there are people who have their lives yanked onto a very different trajectory by cancer and because my experience was ultimately a flirtation with the mere prospect of untimely death that I wasn't one of them.
But I am.
What cancer did was take all those grand thoughts we tend to bury under the practicalities of everyday life, like the meaning of life, what happens after death, why we're here, what our purpose is, etc., and made me begin to unbury them. It made me face all those incomplete circles I penned into completion with simple beliefs and undetailed answers. What began as a rather ugly exercise in trial and error has since taught me that it isn't the answers that absolve us from the questions that are impossible to answer; it's acceptance in how impossible they are to answer. With time, I've become increasingly more skilled at this act of acceptance and when the outcome of SB49 reared it's ugly head, I found my hopes weren't crushed or my emotional investment wasted. Instead, it was like watching any great movie with a riveting but unhappy ending. I'm just glad to have experienced it.
Thus, I think about others who have learned to be more accepting of the unknowable, like agnostics, and I'm curious about how they've come to that mindset despite their internal aversions to incompleteness. I'm wondering if they too are coping better with the loss as a result.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 TIPS FOR SEAHAWKS FANS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SUPER BOWL LOSS:
Link: http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/02/tips ... bowl-loss/
Thread on article: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=108295
David DiSalvo:
Website: http://www.daviddisalvo.org/
Book: http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/s ... e_opposite
