Write Or Wrong 87

The Crying Game

On top of work and school, I've taken a third job. It's something that I was sure I could do and that I'd have fun doing. It's coaching basketball. PEEWEE Basketball. Yes, I'm coaching little kids and, boy oh boy, is it harder that I thought.

I made it to the school in time to move out the equipment used by the previous occupants of the gym and was set to have a wonderful time. Then the kids and their parents began to arrive. As my fellow coach, Jared, and I began to do the roll call and general set-up type things. But one thing was bothering me: none of the parents were leaving. Almost all of them stayed to observe the practice. And as we went through the motions of teaching the kids how to pass properly and how to dribble, the parents would always have something to say, or interject with some little tip or idea. I even had to tell one woman that she had to be quiet because she'd cheer her son on every time he dribbled the ball. But the worst was yet to come.

After the parents settled down and learned to shut up, working with the kids seemed easier. I said "seemed" because, in actuality, it wasn't. They would dribble while we spoke, talk as we were demonstrating things, and tell us that we were doing things wrong. One kid even had the nerve to tell us we weren't good at basketball. I actually laughed at that. But the kicker was when the kids started crying. One boy started crying because he didn't have a partner when everyone was paired up to practice passing. And he wouldn't stop even when we found him one. Also, one little guy started squirting tears because his partner wasn't a good passer. All he kept saying was, "He's making me look bad! I don't like him!" And the tears just kept on flowing from there. Suffice to say that after a day at my regular job AND the crying game that is PEEWEE Basketball, well, I was bushed.

But I do have to say that there were some real positives about the experience. I learned that working with little kids is one hundred times more taxing than working with older kids and that if you want a natural form of contraception, just put people in room with sixteen kids with basketballs. That'll make you keep it in you pants.

The Write Stuff

On a totally different note, I've been reading an amazing weekly column by uber-talented writers Joe Casey And Matt Fraction called, "The Basement Tapes". It's basically the musings of these two writers on anything that is even tangentially related to creativity, or more specifically, writing.

This week they discuss "burnout" amongst creative individuals. This is a wonderful instalment of an equally wonderful column. So check it out here.