It’s in our DNA.

That’s what sports are about. If you watch a game and your local team is playing, then it’s easy. You root for the home team. You can have more than one favorite, especially if you’ve been a nomad. The Red Sox are on a 14-2 tear this season. If they are your team, you feel good.

But have you ever noticed that you couldn’t even watch a game you don’t care about, without rooting for someone? I almost always root for the underdog. Why is it that we MUST choose?

Because otherwise there’s no sense of belonging and no point in the game. And we do it all day, in person, online, and even in our imagination.

Which tribe do you choose?

Coke or Pepsi?

The iPhone or the Android?

Hannity or Rachael Maddow?

Are you America First or It’s A Small World After All?

Organic Veggies or Pesticide Peas?

Vaccinations or I Don’t Trust Them?

Smoker or Non-Smoker?

Gay or Straight?

Pro-Gun or Anti Gun?

White Supremacists or Illegal Aliens?

Yes, there are nuanced positions, but if any of the above are battling each other on your screens, I can almost guarantee that you’ll pick one over the other.

And when one team dominates to the point of winning above all others, it usually loses some of its coolness. We love winners until they take all. Then we tear them down.

Be honest. You hate The New England Patriots and Tom Brady. Unless you live there. In which case, deflate-gate was Fake News. A witch hunt, I tell you!

In Seattle, there’s a backlash against Starbucks. They’re considered the fast food chain for coffee. Boutique coffee shops flourish.

Beer used to be big winners like Budweiser or Miller. They got so big it became cooler to drink craft beers at neighborhood breweries.

Facebook has a target on it. So does Amazon.

And if you’re the rest of the world, you might root against Russia, North Korea, or the United States. The United States is a little bit like Tom Brady.

There’s a Showtime series called HERE AND NOW. It’s not for everyone. It’s an intense depiction of the battles going on in our minds today. Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter star. It takes a lot of edgy chances and doesn’t always succeed. We’re binge-watching anyway because it’s about the world were in today.

In Episode 8, the teenage daughter says this world is so crazy she will never have children. Her philosophy professor dad (Robbins) puts it in perspective. The gist of what he says is that Mankind has repeatedly faced terrible times and the possibility of extinction. Famine, Plagues, World Wars, Hitler, Nuclear Weapons. He points out that he felt that our country was in shambles during Viet Nam. That didn’t stop him from having a family.

Somehow we struggle through it and survive. We ultimately learn and grow. Then the pendulum swings again.

We’re Omnivores. We can eat anything and survive. Meat or Plants. And we’ve even turned that into a fight.

Pick a side.

If the meat eaters were battling the vegetarians, who would you root for?

Chew on that for a minute

---

Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash