I love a good upset.  Last week there  was Duke vs. Wake Forest.  And today, Oregon and Arizona  But that’s College Basketball.

Yet… there is a lot to be said for getting behind the Underdog and rooting them through to the finish line.   Oh yeah.  High fives all around.

But “Good Upset” is a bit of any Oxymoron isn’t it?

I’ll tell you when I don’t love a good upset.  When it happens to me.

As life would have it… there are times when we have to deal with people or things that don’t “want” to deal with.    And as you might expect… it can be quite upsetting.   And some people have much bigger challenges than others.

Yet, most of the time, we push through it.  We do what we have to do and get on with it.

I once met someone who had an answer for this.  Two minutes.

She was a lawyer from Chicago.  Whenever an unpleasant task rolled around… she would just say… “Oh, it will just take you two minutes.”

And. Done.

At first blush, everything may not seem that cut and dry.  But there is a lot to be said for this attitude.  It is called staying in the moment.

“I just am doing ‘this thing’ or ‘that’ for this moment.”    One minute at a time.

And sometimes that is all we can do… to get through whatever the “deal” is.

Today I lost my good pal Ernestine.  She was carefree, and beautiful.  She seemed to be incredible at swimming through life with out a care… at living in the moment.  No expectations, or worries.   She had a graceful and fluid way of navigating each day.   I am going to miss Ernestine dearly.  She used to come right up to the surface and eat out of my hand.  Sounded like a little piggy.

Oh yeah…. Ernestine was my favorite fish. … …. about a 25-pound Koi.  Gone forever.  Dead in the water… no pun intended.

I had to slug my way down there to the pond and pull her out.  Slimy dead fish… are very difficult to pull out of a semi-frozen body of water.

So… as unpleasant as that task may have been for me…  a couple of things became very apparent.

I simply had to push through this nasty task.
And… it was WAY worse for Ernestine than it was for me.

Yep…. a little bit of an upset.

But I was rooting for the Underdog…   all the way.  All the way.

“We must overcome the notion that we must be regular…it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.” – Uta Hagen

 

(Editor’s Note:  Louisville appeared originally in the column.  It should be, and NOW is… Arizona.  Thanks Jan Deters for the blue pen mark.)