Jeremy Lin Is Getting Me Through Chaos, a.k.a. My Life

Oh my goodness, the pregnancy feelings vacillate moment to moment. At 4 p.m., whatever changes were happening all of a sudden, made me feel like I was carrying around a slab of granite. It greatly slowed down my walking pace to the point where the trees rooted in the sidewalk seemed to be moving faster than me.

I don’t know what’s happening to me. A few days ago, I truly knew nothing about the Knicks or basketball, but in a matter of six games, I’ve gotten to know about the importance of a point guard, the names and jersey numbers of Knicks team members, and the background of Jeremy Lin. Every time I feel the fatigue encroaching, I look online for a clip of his game highlights, like this one against the Lakers. I find myself texting Husband about particular saves and points. I get overclempt, witnessing the camraderie of this team, the interracial hugging.

I absolutely love the humility Lin demonstrates in his interviews – he says “This is much bigger than me. This is about the team playing well together. I’m just so grateful they trust me.” It’s not just being humble – I think he’s actually smart and correct in that assessment, and in terms of mental health, I think he’s got it in spades. For anyone else, to gain so much attention for an achievement during your early 20s is definitely a path to character corruption; to experience a phase so golden early on can make the rest of your life seem tarnished. If he can keep this perspective, he can go on to do and enjoy other things.

So every time I’m tired, I go “You don’t think Jeremy Lin is tired?” This story is coming in the nick of time for me and Husband. We keep getting rejected for aparment rentals (I honestly think we are experiencing discrimnation because people don’t want so many babies nearby) and are just juggling a bunch of things, so this kid’s charismatic playing and inspiration story (Dude, please, the kid gets pushed down past the hoop and still makes the basket. Dude, please, the kid does a spin in mid-air and still makes the basket. Dude, please, the kid is surrounded by men at least a foot taller but jumps high enough, and still makes the basket) is totally sustaining us in this last whirlwind stage as we closer to the finish line.

And I do think of race stuff quite a bit and cannot deny that it is the kid’s ethnicity that got me interested in the story in the first place (you don’t see me googling eli manning) but it is all the other factors I mention above that has kept me hooked. I think if he were any race or ethnicity, people would be going ape because of the underdog aspect, the emphasis on the team, and the magnificent, cartoonishly excellent performance. A co-worker suggested this story should give me racial pride, and I do feel things about race in some instances, but part of me genuinely does not give a rat’s arse about race. My utopian vision of the world is diversity in every sense (ethnicity, stories, FOOD, cookies especially), but everyone playing together – having differences, but identifying what we have in common. This is why I loved Lost, and directly stems from my experience in theater.

I am LINSANE, I am LINCREDIBLE. It’s gotten to the point where Husband just suggested we go to a Knicks game, which I totally want to do, but wonder if I can handle it. I might weep through the whole thing because of all the interracial hugging. This is totally like when I fell for Harry Potter. Uh oh, I feel the onset of a multi-year obsession coming, people.