Excessive Celebration

The world of sports has seen some bizarre instances of excessive celebrations gone awry. After a breakthrough All-Star 2009 season, Los Angeles Angels first baseman Kendry Morales hit a game-winning walk-off grand slam in the first half of the 2010 baseball season. He jumped on home plate after rounding the bases and was mobbed by his teammates. In the joyous scrum, he somehow suffered a season ending leg fracture which didn't just end his season in 2010, but subsequent complications caused him to miss the 2011 season, as well. Naturally the question of whether the celebration was worth it given that it's been a contributing factor in the non-contending status of the Angels ever since.

More recently, golfer Thomas Levet decided to celebrate his French Open victory by jumping into the lake. Unfortunately, the broken shin that he suffered during his spontaneous plunge ended up costing him a chance to ride the momentum of his win into contending at the far more important and prestigious British Open.

Naturally, it would be lame to forbid any celebration. It's good and proper to spike the football every now and then, and if there's no joy that can be expressed when you reach the summit, it significantly takes away from the fun of climbing the mountain. On the other hand, there's a bit of intelligence that needs to be wielded when decided to let your emotions go, and self-inflicting injury or putting yourself in harms way seems to cross that line.

I can't but help think of this as a little bit of a life lesson as well. The other issue with excessive celebration is that it tends of over-inflate our own sense of accomplishment, and we tend not to balance our own little victories with the realization that (depending on what you believe), we owe a great deal of credit to God's grace, luck, good fortune or happenstance. I recall reading an article in Sports Illustrated featuring then all-world and superstar relief pitcher John Rocker. Referring to Rocker, older and wiser teammate Mike Remlinger had this to say:

"The thing is, baseball is a game of humility. You can be on top one minute, as low as possible the next. When you're young, you don't realize it. But sooner or later you learn—we all do. Be humble."

And so it is with life. Things can change awfully fast at work, in life, within a family and in our everyday relationships. It's a good reminder to beware of excessive celebration and boasting in our temporary success and comfort, because at the end of the day, that's all that the good time are promised to be - temporary. Enjoy in and cherish it, but don't get cocky.

Going back to the sports examples, there are some Phillies fans that believe in the theory that ever since a kneeling Brad Lidge got buried in a celebratory heap after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, he's never been healthy or quite the same. Of course, may of those same Phillies fans would submit that if your team wins the World Series, anything short of causing permanently causing paralysis is a worthy celebration.