Magical Thinking

My daughter plays soccer. She is a starter on her school's Girls Varsity team, and she's also the backup goalie. Her coach wanted her to play first goalie. She's actually really good at it but she hates hates hates being in goal, so he struck a deal and made her backup goalie and ran plays that included her on the field.

At the beginning of the season, after her team lost their first three games, my girl noted,"I have never been on a winning team." It was true. Her progressive middle school was all about getting out under the sky and breathing fresh air and getting exercise and having fun. Their competitive edge was pretty dull. When she went on to high school, she hit the team right as they were rebuilding, and that first season was a miserable rout. The following year the team did better, but didn't make the playoffs. But this year, well, that's a whole different story.

You see, after my girl noted in her rather matter-of-fact tone that she had never been on a winning team, she went on to observe that she would like to know what it felt like to win. And would you believe it, they won the next game. And the next several, so that now they've put together a winning season and made it into the championship playoffs! My girl has played goalie in about half the games, and her team won all but one of those games. They are now seeded fourth in their league, but they are also the only team not to have lost to the first seeded team this season. And one of the teams they trounced during the season beat the first seeded team yesterday.

My girl's team also won yesterday after two hard fought overtimes that resolved nothing, and sent the game into penalty kicks. My daughter's team scored on all their kicks, the other team scored on only one, and so they—we—won!

Last night over dinner, my girl explained the simple math needed for her team to win the whole thing. What a magical little thinker she is! I think she just went right on ahead and rewrote her story. The philosophers say we are, all of us, capable of doing that. They say our lives are mere clay and we shape it daily with our thoughts and our intentions. I like to think my daughter is doing just that. Well, why not?