My Losing Season by Pat Conroy Available on Audio Book

I am not a sports fan. This is a sports book that is not about sports. I loved it.

Athletics provide some of the richest fields of both metaphor and cliche to measure our lives against the intrusions and aggressions of other people.

The game kept me from facing the ruined boy who played basketball instead of killing his father. It was also the main language that allowed father and son to talk to each other. If not for sports, I do not think my father ever would have talked to me.

Even in defeat there is education. In fact there is probably more education in losing than in winning.

Sports books are always about winning because winning is far more pleasurable and exhilarating to read about than losing. Winning is wonderful in every aspect, but the darker music of loss resonates on deeper, richer planes. I think about all the games of that faraway year that played such a part in shaping me, and it is the losses that stand out because they still make their approach with all their capacities to wound intact. Winning makes you think you'll always get the girl, land the job, deposit the million-dollar check, win the promotion, and you grow accustomed to a life of answered prayers. Winning shapes the soul of bad movies and novels and lives. It is the subject of thousands of insufferably bad books and is often a sworn enemy of art.

Loss is a fiercer, more uncompromising teacher, coldhearted but clear-eyed in its understanding that life is more dilemma than game, and more trial than free pass. My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life... Though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss.

Pat Conroy works his literary magic from the beginning of the book to the end. I learned a lot about Pat Conroy but even more about myself and about life. I learned something about basketball and about my friends too.

Losing prepares you for the heartbreak, setback, and tragedy that you will encounter in the world more than winning ever can. By licking your wounds you learn how to avoid getting wounded the next time. The American military learned more by its defeat in South Vletnam than it did in all the victories ever fought under the Stars and Stripes.

Unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten the lessons of Vietnam. Pat Conroy always seems fresh to me.