Depeche Mode’s album (remember those) Violator was released in 1990, and one song – Enjoy The Silence - is playing in my head.
My thoughts are not tied to all the song’s lyrics, just the “Enjoy The Silence” part due to my current state.
It’s Friday afternoon, 4:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time/1:55 Pacific Standard time in the Coachella Valley in Palm Springs, California.
My hosts - two school administrators - are enjoying an early afternoon nap. Shawna, my wife of 30 years as of last Monday, is napping on a poolside chaise lounge, and I’ve finished this week’s Chip Shots.
I’m enjoying the silence.
Everyone here is great company, so when we are awake, I enjoy the conversations because there is no lull, but we are each comfortable enough to move to our little corners when we need to recharge.
The silence I’m enjoying isn’t because no one is visiting or talking. I’m enjoying the silence of limited work e-mail exposure, a bit less of the usually compulsive tracking of news everywhere, and a scholastic sports month of February where I’ve had less to do than I have in years past.
I promised my people “here,” and my work/leadership folks “there” where you folks are, I would limit my activity to burning platform stuff, or to assure essential approvals aren’t unnecessarily delayed just because I’m out-of-office (OOO).
I work for a very large – but administratively lean – corporation, so there are some wheels requiring continued motion.
I work with very pragmatic people, most of them younger than I am, who do what they do very well, but adjust to the schedules of others who need to take time away from work.
It is a noticeably quiet weekend as it relates to scholastic sports in the Times-Union readership area. While the “quiet” means some winter sports teams along with those sports for individual competitors are finished (but they’d rather not be), I feel like I’m not missing anything by taking time off during a usually crazy February.
I’m not glad these seasons are over, but the fear of missing out (FOMO) I have anytime I step away from the local sports scene, and the uncomfortable schedule gaps popping up as teams are eliminated from postseason play aren’t bothering me as much as they usually do.
I am, instead, enjoying the silence.
I embraced the gap I am currently enjoying between last Tuesday and the middle of this coming week before I resume additional event work – a NAIA basketball doubleheader featuring very talented men’s and women’s squads.
I’ll enjoy – by the visit’s end – multiple American Hockey League (AHL) games watching a local team who is part of the Seattle Kraken NHL organization.
These aren’t my first AHL games.
I was stationed at a now-defunct Air Force base in the Utica-Rome… um… metroplex… from 1985-1988. The Utica Devils (there name at the time I was there) were part of the AHL comprised (in those years) of teams from smaller cities in Quebec and New Brunswick as well as Upstate New York (Rochester Americans) and the Hershey Bears in Pennsylvania. The latter teams still maintain their original colors and team names although almost all the other AHL teams take on a variation of their NHL parent organizations.
I enjoyed the silence from the sixth row of a crowd of at least 7,500 fans who – just as I did as a Utica Devils fan – also hate the Hershey Bears as much as I did in the late 1980s.
The silence? My role was just… a fan. I could cheer if I want, eat kettle corn if I want, and enjoy a beer. I assure you I did each of these.
PA announcing is my favorite role among all the things I do in sports, but it was fun to relax, and listen to someone else plying at their craft.
I watched the action while I also watched the multi-media work dependent on tight timing of every step in the event from promotional breaks, arena crowd-cam shots, and the impressive accuracy pronouncing numerous Slavic, Scandinavian, and French names.
The Coachella Valley is a place best enjoyed by owning the day. With its early sunrises, and the fact my body is accustomed to waking up at 5 a.m. in Indiana anyway, owning the day is quite easy here because I’m sleeping in each day… kind of.
My Friday morning adventure was a 6:55 a.m. tee-time on a golf course – something I haven’t done since 2008 when I sold my clubs due to lack of use and my extremely inferior performance in the sport.
I enjoyed the silence.
I was not cluttering my brain with self-destructive noise the way I did a few decades ago while I owned and used my clubs.
I didn’t even golf.
The club’s management offered a cart for me tail my host and his friend while they tackled 18 holes in very efficient fashion.
I had, as SpongeBob SquarePants once sang, “the best day ever” on the golf course (ever) living vicariously through each shot taken – good and bad – while all I had to do was take in the beautiful view of snow-peaked desert mountains, keep an eye on where balls landed, and stay silent during approaches and the ensuing swings.
Piece of cake.
Those of us who – past and present – gladly fill up our schedules with athletic events whether our roles are among event worker, fan, parent, or coach (because this time goes by in a flash), please do not fret.
When the seasons end, or there are gaps between seasons, please remind yourselves to not dread the gaps.
Enjoy the silence. Oh, please enjoy your weather… over there… while you’re at it * evil laugh *