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Kids today just don't understand

The Red Sox and Patriots are generating a region of sunny optimists so different from their parents.

For the second time in four years, the Red Sox won the World Series Sunday night, led by 23-year-old pitcher Jon Lester, who beat cancer in the offseason. And the Patriots, winners of three Super Bowls in the past six years, are flying over speed bumps like the Washington Redskins as they blaze along the fast lane toward another trip to the Super Bowl.

It's so different for sports fans coming of age today. These 10- and 12-year-old kids expect the Red Sox and Patriots to win. We expected them to lose.

We came of age when our teams were laughingstocks at worst, runnersup at best. Every now and then we'd get the whiff of a championship. We'd buy the shirts, and buy into the hope, then the Pats would get pummeled before a national Super Bowl audience, 46-10, or the ball would trickle through Bill Buckner's legs.

And, unfortunately, we could see all the ugly details since the games didn't start in the middle of the night and end in the early morning as they do now.

It left us cursing, believing in curses, and, I'm afraid, losing dimmed our view of life in general.

But now we can thank the Sox and Patriots for imbuing our children with a Norman Vincent Peale power-of-positive-thinking view of life. You play. You win. Life is simple and sunny.

Kids growing up in New England today won't wait for balls to bounce through legs. Curses? Leave them to their pathetic uncles who still insist on babbling about '78 and '86.

They won't fret about blizzards or hurricanes. And if it does rain, they will step dance like Jonathan Papelbon until the skies clear.

As they grow into adults, these New Englanders will laugh at those mysterious economic indicators that help move the Dow.

"Social Security is insolvent," they will be told.

"That's OK. My 401k is kicking butt," they will say.

"Are you worried about the troubles in the Mideast?," they will be asked.

"No, we have faith that President Jenna Bush will get us out of the war."

Yes, even we conditioned pessimists are optimistic today that our sons and daughters will live in a world full of possibilities, a place where a kid can battle cancer and win the World Series.

-- Jack Perry

Posted by Jack Perry  at 8:34 AM | Permalink