Let it be

Generally, we like to do a few things. We like to hear narratives and we like to categorize/classify things. In 2011, we live in an age where narratives can change in 140 characters or fewer and in no time at all. Because of that age of immediacy, we’re also apt to blow things out of proportion. Perhaps the fleeting nature of our collective attention span or the fleeting nature of new media, but we always feel the need to pump something up. Maybe we figure that it’ll be forgotten soon enough, so we might as well milk it for all it’s worth.

This popped up yesterday in the wake of Curtis Granderson’s marvelous catches against the Tigers in Game Four of the ALDS on Tuesday night. Friend of the blog Sean McNally made a great point:

Why does everything that just happened have to be “the best ever?” Can’t things just effing be?

I’m with Sean. Granted, I’m sure I’ve been guilty of in-the-moment-aggrandizing before, but I think we need to take his simple words to heart. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting joy out of a moment or gushing over it, but must we be so quick to find its place in history? Must we be so quick to declare something the best/worst thing ever? Granted, there are times when we’re being a bit tongue in cheek with this act (like this post), but more often than not…

I am a person who is generally geared towards thinking about things in the bigger picture and I’ll (usually) never get on someone for analyzing things. However, there are times when it’s just appropriate to enjoy the moment. Granderson’s catches were incredible for a lot of reasons, but do we really need to think of their place in history right now? This goes for just about any event that’ll happen in Game Five or the rest of the playoffs (for any team, not just the Yankees). There will be a time and a place for that sort of thinking, but for the immediate future, let’s just enjoy the moment for what it is or what it was. I loved Granderson’s catches because they helped the Yankees win a game they needed to win, not because they may go down as two of the all time great playoff catches.

Whether it’s good (Granderson’s catches, Robinson Cano’s grand slam) or bad (Mark Teixeira’s “hitting” in the 2011 playoffs), let’s hold off judgment for just a little bit. We may feel that something is the best or worst ever, but that doesn’t do justice to the moment. Like Matt said yesterday, the season can absolutely fly by. We need to savor every single moment of it that we can. If that means holding back on some analysis or judgment for a while, then so be it.

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