Or a eulogy. Everybody says nice things, and then you're never heard from again. Am I supposed to keep coaching? Or should I just disappear in a puff of praise and quit while I'm ahead.
When I realize that I've been doing this for about a decade, it really starts to seem like a long time. I've outlasted an incredible number of people, so many that my gray eminence is the grayest for miles around. Which raises the question, of course, of why I do it.
I dunno.
I started because I wanted to keep the team alive. I'm so caught up in it now I couldn't stop if I wanted to. So I guess I do it because of either inertia or momentum (having never studied physics, I'm not quite sure which one is applicable). You know what I really like? Brainstorming topics. Covering new intellectual territory. Finding out new stuff. Arguing (in the rhetorical sense). Showing off how smart I am. (Gee, Menick, you know more than a high school kid! I live in fear and trembling of the time when Claire can regularly beat me at Jack.) I like the activity in and of itself, because I truly believe that the ability to present yourself and your ideas well is a key to success in the modern world. I like getting out of the house; what else would I be doing if I didn't do this? I'd be sitting home reading way too many 19th century novels. How much Trollope can one person survive, after all? Or worse, I'd actually finish Kingdom Hearts, which would indeed be the red badge of inertia. If I didn't do this I couldn't harass O'Cruz. I wouldn't have anyone named NoShow or Wheatgerm or Ewok in my life. Or I never would have gotten to know [insert names of every debater ever, because I don't want to leave anyone out]. I would have never had met Jules.
I wouldn't have to run Bump ever ever again... Okay, getting out while the getting's good would have some positive benefits.
Obviously I'm a frustrated teacher. Or a teaching frustrater. Whatever.
Thanks for the praise, folks. It was nice.
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