Of Course The Hardcore Do Better

These People Are Not Depressed

So there's a story in the Gray Lady this morning (I'd link to it, but there's firewall issues) as to how "superfans" are less prone to depression and alienation than, well, people who don't mark out at events.

And, well, the answer to that is Of Course, You Mooks, but not for just the reasons listed in the article. Rather, you are missing out on these things.

1) People who mark out -- wave a towel, scream their heads off, react to every event as if it were a life-changing event -- are getting a cardio workout. Maybe it's not a traditional one or one that's as good as routine work in the gym, but still, it's something. If you want to avoid depression and alienation, move your ass. Really, it's just that simple. (And the biggest reason why I like moving around at my home poker game, along with the fact that I don't like to do all of the post-game clean-up, well, post-game.)

2) How, exactly, are you supposed to be alienated when you are in a crowd of thousands of people who are, well, marking out?

When you are at a game, you aren't worrying about retirement or the kids' college fund or your job or your relatives or, well, anything else that you can't control but have to fret about. Instead, there's just game, and so long as the game is good, and you aren't taken out of it by crazy pricing or some safety or drunkenness issue, that's where your head is going to stay.

Being present is good. Being present is everything. Being present allows us to pull the wool over our own eyes, self-delude ourselves into thinking that the event that we're watching truly matters, that the art form of ball or bat or basket or body matters, has merit, has value. Enough to take over your whole head, at least for a little while.

This past week and next, I'm juggling way too much. The routine poker game is next Friday, and I'm tight on cash right now for various reasons; that can either make my game better or worse, historically. The baseball keeper league protects are due on Thursday at midnight, and I'm on the knife edge on a handful of guys; I'm also behind my prep, because the older  get, the more my procrastination grows, stupidly. The day job has exploded with work in the last week, which is fantastic, because it's been slow, and slow makes me paranoid and persnickety. (It's also why the posting rate has gone down. Only so many hours in the day, folks.)

And all of that goes away when there's a good game, and all of that is, well, healthy. Or, at the very least, healthier than the alternative...