serenity

I played CYO basketball growing up. It’s organized through Catholic dioceses across the country but you don’t need to belong to a parish. Everyone’s welcome. My boys have been doing it since they were eligible in 2nd grade.

[I started (assisted) coaching this year for my 6th grader Zak. Our first playoff game is later today. Obviously we’d like to win. His soccer team lost in the first round of the playoff after an undefeated season and this basketball team went 10-0 but we’re playing a tough squad we haven’t played before. Zak might feel cursed if he gets bumped in the first round again.

In any case I haven’t coached the kids in a few years and it was nice to be getting that time with them so promised I’d coach both of them during their middle school years of CYO.]

Since the league is through a diocese we say a prayer at midcourt before the game. We had a game yesterday so I picked the one my favorite HS teacher said before every class. (He passed away last year).

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things I can.

And the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s a famous prayer but the only one that resonated with me growing up. My history teacher used that one which always made me think of him different. Like he didn’t just pick an Our Father or Hail Mary like the others on autopilot.

He was a quirky guy. Wry sense of humor. He had certain catchphrases…like in understanding motivation he always liked to follow the money. “Greedy nasty little oafs”.

He was a bit of a conspiracy theorist which felt less common in the early 90s. Even the term getting pilled Matrix-style hadn’t originated yet. He was pilled. And that’s gonna work on HS students whose only source of knowledge was textbooks and 24 volume Encyclopedia hawked door-to-door (ours was Colliers not Britannica. Like McDowells is to McDonalds). He claimed Paul Revere was in jail the night of the midnight ride so couldn’t have made it. He believed the US knew the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor. He was pretty ruthless as an instructor. But it was my favorite HS class and I was saddened to learn of his passing. I haven’t been required to say a prayer since HS. So I picked the Serenity one and said it was in an honor of a teacher that I’ll always remember.

[Random personal bit: Tony Reali is a good friend. We were super tight in HS although only get to see each once a year or so now. He and I did a school project in that class where we roleplayed Sportscenter but with history topics instead of sports. Tony always wanted to be a sportscaster if he wasn’t gonna be a Yankee. Well, if you know who he is you know dreams come true.

Tony’s the same mench he was when we met over 30 years ago when we’d jam out to Aerosmith’s greatest hits on the way to our own CYO games for St. Leo’s.

My mom still gets a charge from seeing him on TV. “He loved my cooking”.

Mr. Matson was both our favorite teacher. RIP.]