the best bracket

We always have to pick one…

• Best Dressed Man
• Sexiest Man Alive
• Best Picture
• Best New Artist
• The #1 New York Times Best Seller

We make things into a competition… for everything from presidential nominations to “who will be the next Pope” to the People’s Choice Awards. We’re a competitive people. We like to crown one winner.

Such awareness leads me to the competitive manifestation found in the madness of March. Again today, college basketball teams will pair off on the tournament hardwood — each fighting to be the best… each wanting to win.

Many of us have joined in the contest — filling out our own brackets — entering either the annual office pool or family challenge, or perhaps even, simply competing for a point of personal pride. According to Slate.com in recent years, an estimated 45% of us filled out a bracket (…granted, approximately 43% of us have also already wadded them up and thrown them away). As evidenced by the 11.57 million people who completed a bracket on ESPN, “bracketology” has taken on a new meaning indeed.

I was struck this week by something else I found wadded up. This sheet was crumpled in the corner in one of my son’s upstairs bedrooms (…I know… shocking that I would find anything on the floor of a teenager’s room…).

Yet when I slowly unfurled this crumpled sheet, I found a goldmine of wisdom. Here, roughly designed with undoubtedly valiant efforts at perceived symmetry, was a bracket created by my 13 year old, sports fan son with special needs.

He did not use a pre-printed bracket, however; he made up his own.

On both the left and the right, he crafted slots for 16 teams, thus including 32 entries. But this bracket had a different title. It said nothing about the 2015 Men’s NCAA Championship. Instead, boldly printed on the top of the page was:

“BRACKIT FOR BEST MAN AND TEAM”

Then down the sides of the page, I sat still as I read the names. There I would find the listings of my son’s father…

… his brothers… some aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins.

I did chuckle — realizing Josh must have ran out of names to write — when added in on his “brackit” were LeBron James, the University of Florida, and our cat, Zipper. But I loved and admired his precious list.

My only pondering was why he never completed the bracket — why it was instead crumpled and discarded. So I soon asked, “Why no best man and team?”

To which my wise son responded, “There are lots of good teams. It doesn’t matter. Winning and losing are the same… if you win, you’re awesome; if you lose, you’re still awesome.”

It didn’t matter. No one had to win.

Respectfully…

AR