DENOUMENT FROM TRIPLE OVERTIME

When the events of the story conclude, tie up and make sense, you have Denoument. We make resolutions at various times throughout life and to say we’re short sighted would be grotesquely inadequate. Our resolutions are not action focused or developmental. We determine to reach these pinnacles and shock the world. And I watch USC football wanting them to be electric. Today was October 29, 2011 and USC took three OT periods to lose to heavy favorite Stanford. USC lost 56 – 48 and I know moral victories are billed as ethereal myths that motivate. Nevertheless, I think the better team sometime loses.

Put two teams, two sets of super human athletes across from one another in combat. All things can be equal but the science of an oblong ball’s bounce, the pain threshold of each human on that field and the subjectivity of officiating come together to produce what we know as college game day. So the only constant is preparation and a will to give all on every down, so-to-speak. Because we all know that you will not always win. It’s as grim a truth as exists. Your Denoument is literally everything.

It’s not a choice to resolve. It’s a mandate. You have to decide who you will be, how you will work, why you will fight in this life. You have to respond to both wins and losses. But mostly you have to respond to varying degrees of loss. You have to adjust, regroup, retool, relearn and reapply. The plot structure of your saga is loaded and can lure you into its complexity. Don’t bite. Run hard, hit hard, mourn your losses but you dang well better resolve to battle the pressure and refine yourself. Championship play is always an admirable objective.