When I was a freshman at the University of Montana, I used to hate my life when it involved waking up before noon. If it happened to be cold outside, and I was up before noon, I hated my life to its very depths.
One day, I was walking to take a mid-term, grumbling as usual. “Woe is me,” I mumbled, “I have to go take this mid-term.” These are things that can seriously weigh on your mind as an 18 year old.
On this particular day, I happened to notice the British kid down the hall had posted a list on his door. I stopped to take a peek. “Things That Will Happen Today” read the title.
It was a list of all the cataclysmic things that, on average, will happen on any given day. (X) amount of children dying of preventable diseases, (X) number of people dying due to lack of drinking water, etc. etc.
For some reason, the first line always stuck out to me: “13 Chinese Miners Will Die Today.” I thought about that for a second. Sure, I was walking to a mid-term, unprepared, in the blistering cold. But at least I still had my life. At least my fate wasn’t to die in a mine digging pieces of metal out of the ground for rich people.
The lesson was, nothing is ever as bad as it seems. What do Chinese Miners have to do with the Lakers recent four game skid? Lakers fans are absolutely notorious for over-reacting and this four-game losing streak is a prime example. Look, the Lakers are two-time defending champions. I shouldn’t be reading articles with the word “panic” in them–except to describe Ron Artest’s face the other night in Memphis when Kobe gave him the ball with the game on the line.
