What's relevant and what's not as we all process Tuesday night's election results

Did you notice how beautiful the crescent moon was last night?

Photo by Erin Dunning

Joy cometh in the morning. (Or in the afternoon.)

"This all seems so irrelevant as people face deportation," came the one-line protest from a kind reader in response to a story I posted yesterday titled "Aggie men score late to earn first-round soccer playoff win over Cal State Bakersfield.

Yes, I suppose it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but I've written many times about immigration in recent weeks and over the decades - "Matthew 25: Welcome the Stranger" - and every now and then I'll write about sports.

Yes, sports.

It's something I've done as a journalist for the last 55 years, but never at the expense of much more "serious" topics.

I'm already posting more news-side, current events columns every week than I did at my former employer, so I see sports coverage as an added bonus for those souls who are interested in such things.

Because many people are not interested in sports (see "irrelevant" above), I keep those stories in their own separate Sports Section so they don't have to be bothered.

But let's examine sports for a minute, be it Little League baseball, college football, professional basketball or neighborhood pickleball.

The people at the Aggie soccer game Wednesday afternoon were having a blast, cheering on their favorites, loudly booing at what they perceived as bad calls and sitting close together because the strong north wind had a chilling bite to it.

But mostly, they were experiencing joy.

The players on the field, whether they were wearing Aggie Blue and Gold or the white jerseys of the Bakersfield players who rode 300 miles on a bus to participate in this irrelevancy, were earnest and eager and excited to be a part of this.

But mostly, they were experiencing joy.

I was thrilled to be there with a microphone in front of my lips, sharing my thoughts on the action with my broadcast partner, Will Wyman, on an ESPN+ telecast of the game.

I was relieved to be spending two full hours thinking about soccer instead of the election results from the previous night that kept me up well past 3 a.m.

But mostly, I was experiencing joy.

Right now, throughout our country, no matter who you voted for or even if you didn't vote at all, it would be helpful for everyone to experience some pure, simple joy.

A cup of coffee with a friend, a bike ride against the wind, a Double-Double at In-N-Out or a quiet seat in the back pew of your favorite place of worship.

Or even at a nail-biting, thrill-a-minute soccer showdown on the local college campus.

As John Denver sang in, "Matthew," one of his beautiful purely American ballads, 

"Joy was just the thing he was raised on
Love is just the way to live and die."

Or, if you prefer Three Dog Night,

"Joy to the world
All the boys and girls
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me."

Amen.