A Friendly Game of (Relationship) Baseball By Abstrack

A couple of weeks ago I was in a trendy Atlanta restaurant having Sunday dinner with a close friend of mine. After covering the basic questions and topics like the status of one another's family, our careers, sports and music I bring up the topic of relationships. See this brother has been dealing with an extremely good woman for sometime now, but hasn't committed to her yet. I inquire to see what their status is and he proceeds to tell me nothing much has changed, they are still “kicking it” and when the time is right, then it (the relationship) will be. I question whether or not she is willing to hang around until “the time is right” and he counters with “I hope so, if she doesn't I know I will be kicking myself for a while”. A red flag automatically goes off in my head and I ask my brother, if you're going to be kicking yourself if she leaves, then why won't you just settle down now? I mean it's extremely obvious that they both care dearly for one another so what is the damn problem? I ask.

“I'm just not ready brother.”

After looking at my boy for a long ten seconds in utter amazement, I begin to break down to him my metaphoric philosophy on relationships as it relates to the game of baseball.

When looking for that life mate, you are only thrown three, four good pitches to swing at and hit that homerun.

Let me break my metaphor down for the many out there that may be not following me or don't understand the game of baseball. In this situation, GOD is the pitcher, you are the batter. God places (pitches) certain people in your life who he feels is a good fit for you (let's call these the pitches that come right down the middle of the plate) and many that aren't good for you (bad pitches thrown either to high, low, on the inside of the plate, etc.).

In the game of baseball you are allowed three “strikes” and four “balls”. Pitches that are thrown as strikes are usually easier to hit into the field of play versus “Balls”, piches that are thrown anywhere but in the strike zone.

So as stated above, the good Lord places several special people in our life and others who he feels are not good life mates, but ones who you can learn something from, thus it is our job as the batter to select one of the better pitches thrown at us and knock it out the park (finding your life mate).

As I continue to elaborate on my philosophy I explain to my friend that many of us 25 and up single people have already missed out on one, hell maybe two “perfect pitches” and as we are getting older, good pitches are becoming harder to receive.

With that being said, we have to ask ourselves, so why we didn't swing at them? There are probably a number of various reasons why we didn't. One scenario many people have encountered is the pitch that comes at us at a relatively young age. Maybe this was your college sweetheart or someone you were dating seriously right after college that honestly we just weren't ready for. This is normally the one that is labeled in your mind “The one that got away”. You're not totally made at yourself cause you know that deep down inside the timing for you just wasn't right, but you always play that “what if” game in your head.

For those of us that are on strike two unfortunately we don't have an excuse of what happened with this pitch. In baseball terms it's called “Getting caught looking” a pitch comes at you and you don't swing you don't do anything but look at the pitch. I think this issue is more prevalent in men then women and basically it boils down to maturity (or the lack thereof) of wanting to be in a serious relationship. We want to do the right thing we even know what the right thing is, but for some reason we just can't do the right thing.

Now as genders on a whole we usually get “caught looking”, because we feel that there is always another pitch… a better pitch that is going to be thrown at us. We are never satisfied and wind up missing out of the blessings that GOD has placed into our life.

Sadly what winds up happening is after we have basically struck out; many people take swings at terrible pitches, mates that you know aren't right for you, but it's done out of desperation to find lifetime love. More often than not, these situations usually turn into being strikes, maybe a hit, but never a homerun and the cycle continues, because ultimately we all want to love, be loved and spend the rest of our lives with that one person, so the search continues way after your third perfect pitch has been thrown to you.

As I wrapped up my philosophy and dinner, my boy understood and agreed with everything I said. I told him that it is perfectly fine to analyze each pitch as it is being thrown at us, but we should never overanalyze anything. Nothing comes from it but stress and hastily decisions. Live your life and don't choke up on the bat.

Peace

Abstrack