STRAIGHT UP BALLER

This weekend the Greenhills Middle School Girls' Basketball team took part in the St. Paul Invitational in Ann Arbor. Cate had played basketball at the park or in the driveway of our neighbors on occasion, but she had never played organized basketball until joining her school team this year. That is why it was such a revelation to see her command of the court at this tournament. She reminded me of a mini Magic Johnson with her vision of the court, spatial awareness, and command of basketball's fundamentals.

Perhaps it is true that skills from one sport transfer to another, and soccer and basketball have many similarities. However, I like to think that certain athletes have attributes that are inherently well-suited to certain activities. For them, playing a range of sports allows them to develop disparate skills that create a much fuller package and end product. This is a thesis the writer David Epstein discusses in his book Range.

Cate's skills were on full display in all three games in the tournament - a single elimination event. She rebounded, started fast breaks, made shots, and delivered some "dimes" - inch perfect passes, which her teammates often put away for baskets. In the end, the Gryphons prevailed and took the title. Here's to the generalists and here's to Cate!

LIFE AND DEATH

The author Susan Sontag faced multiple health challenges in her lifetime, including several cancers, once wrote, "Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick." I was reminded of this recently after several of my best friends faced serious health challenges or had family members facing these events. 

There is nothing more important in life than health because health means freedom to pursue one's wishes, dreams, and goals without limitation. Unfortunately, we often lose sight of this and take life for granted. My former Chairman of Medicine from Southwestern, Dr. Daniel Foster, was a metabolism experiment. Dr. Foster always said life is merely about generating high energy phosphate bonds to make ATP, the fuel of the cell. However, after 9/11, he changed his mind and simply said, "Life is until further notice." 

I thought about those words as I visited my friend in the hospital last weekend and as I comforted another friend whose dad died quickly after a recurrence of his cancer. My problems and stresses truly felt minuscule in comparison - a fact that I appreciated last week more than at any time in my life. 

There can be no happiness if one has never experienced sadness. Likewise, loss can make one appreciate all the things one has to be grateful for. Life is a gift, and I will do my best to remember that each and every day.

BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Some movies are made to entertain, while others are made to move you or make you think about our world and one's place in it. I have always gravitated to the latter, and Banshees of Inisherin sits firmly in that camp.

At face value, the film is about the sudden falling out and estrangement of two men from Ireland in the 1920s, who had once been the closest of friends. The rift, at first, seems inexplicable, especially to one of the men named Padraic played by Colin Farrell. His friend, Colm - played by Brendan Gleeson - proceeds to tell him that there was no major row - just that he has become tired of him and no longer has time for him.

The real heart and soul of the film though is Padraic's sister Siobhan, played by Kerri Condon. Like Farrell and Gleason, Condon is nominated for an Oscar, and she just might win it. Her performance cuts past the two friends' falling out and remind us that - deep down - we all long to grow, find purpose, and achieve our dreams. Her salvation is books and all things literary, and books provide her a way out.

The men, on the other hand, do not seem to have the same purpose and are blinded by their perceived differences and desire for revenge. The senselessness of this is captured in a few moments of violence and self-mutilation that is an allegory for the wider conflict zone in which these characters find themselves.

I will not spoil the ending or the deeper meaning. Suffice it to say, I did not need to read a review to understand just what the director/screenwriter Martin McDonagh had intended to portray with this beautiful film. The truth was right before our eyes - in all its brutal reality.