Teamwork

We won our hockey game today 9-1. (Observant readers will recall that it's the same score as last week.) Funny thing is, the other team (the Bullies) had just as much talent as our team, and maybe more. Indeed, the Bullies were probably 10 years younger than us on average. (My 53 years does skew our average age up!) But we outplayed them from start to finish. The difference was teamwork.

Teamwork makes up for all sorts of shortcomings. Think about teamwork in your home life, with your family. My wife cooks and does the laundry, and my teamwork contribution is to...ok, bad example. But teamwork in my office is fantastic. We share the work load and help each other out all day long. We take advantage of each individual's strengths so as to provide the best service possible. And since people generally like to play to their strengths, this approach has been very effective. Teamwork allows us to do more with less, and takes difficult work and makes it fun. (And since I can't possibly say it enough, here's a great big thank you to all my teammates at work for being the great people that they are!)

In my high school years I played basketball, a true team sport. Around the age of 30 I traded my basketball in for a nice street bike, and instead of shooting jumpers, I took long solo bike rides. I enjoyed the fresh air, the exercise, and the time to think random thoughts. These were good times.

At the age of 40 I picked up my first hockey stick and soon after I was playing competitive roller hockey in Philadelphia. Hockey is another true team sport. We win and we lose as a team; no individual wins a game, and no individual loses a game. It has been great sharing the exhilaration of winning, and it has been comforting to share the disappointment of losing. And there is a special feeling knowing that someone on the team has your back, and you have theirs.

While I had great enjoyment in my individual pursuit of solo bike riding, I have really found great joy in the teamwork of hockey. At some point I will no longer be able to keep up with my teammates, and maybe then I'll re-find the joy of an individual sport. Until then, I'll keep enjoying the stench of a hockey locker room.