If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
―
I am preparing a group of paintings for the annual Small Paintings show next month at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. Included in this group are a few of my baseball field pieces including this diminutive 6″ by 12″ canvas.
I call this piece Wait ‘Til Next Year, a phrase many baseball fans have uttered as yet another season ends in utter disappointment for their favorite teams. But even as one crummy season ends in despair, the hopes and expectations for the next begin to grow. We fade into winter with our disappointment turning into grand dreams for the next season as we wait for it to begin.
That’s one of the beautiful aspects of the game, the way it echoes our human journey through the year. The winter has us reflecting on where we came up short last year and planning and dreaming for what might come with Spring Training. Summer finds teams putting in the hard work that will hopefully pay off with a chance to play in the fall playoffs. Perhaps even ending the year with a World Series trophy.
But this can only occur for one team and its fans. For the rest of us whose teams fell by the wayside, there is no relishing the thrill of victory. No, it’s a winter of blotting out the low points from the past year and building up the hopes for next year as your team makes personnel moves, adding new members that you are sure, in your gleeful hopefulness, will be the ones that makes a difference. That these new cogs will make the machine hum all the way to the Series.
For the baseball fan, hope springs eternal..
We’ll get ’em next year. You’ll see…
Redtree Times 