A new Mr. President and some change..

As a nation, we are just a couple of days from a historic event. A new President. All the news channels are abuzz about just how HISTORIC the swearing in of Obama will be. There will be change, yes there will be, you betcha! But this blog is not about politics, it is today about observations of change.
This morning my wife and I watched our 5 year old grandson play his very first basketball game. This is the kindergarten league at our church and it seems oh so simple, basketball that is. For all but a few of these kids, up until now, a gym was not for basketball, it was a place of freedom. No obstacles, a wide open space, where when the rules were relaxed you can run and run and run. A place of inventing variations on the game of tag, or chase, or racing anything. Unstructured in a large open structure. It was great! Today, and all the nights of practice changed all that, well at least it should have.
We laughed and said we love this league, the league where the players don't all run onto the court, some skipped, others hopped. A league where dribbling the ball is a constant battle against gravity, where forward motion of yourself and another object has yet to be mastered.
This is a learning league. The coaches are on the court directing and encouraging, as are the referees. Helping shots go in and even a couple of times a referee lifting someone off the floor to dunk. The coaches and referees all watching to make sure that everyone who is playing touches the ball,or gets a shot, reinforcing that everyone played today.
That was the game today, nobody got called for walking with the ball, which they did a lot of, or double dribble, which they did very little since they hardly dribbled at all, they just had fun. For some the object of the day was to see how loud they could make their footfalls be as they ran down the court, grinning all the way.
Later we watched the older brother play, he's 10, this will be his fourth year of play. What a change. It was still fun, but much more serious, and the refs did blow their whistles a lot more. There was still encouragement and fun on the floor. Smiles and cheers for both teams, but somehow, it changed from the kindergarten game. The intensity was higher as well as expectations. There were no players skipping onto the court. But, the smiles were just as big when a basket was made and the cheers for good plays still rang in the room. Expectations were higher, but the fun was still there. It was just different. Something had changed.
When change comes we may regret that it makes life different, but as the old saw goes, "if you ain't changing you must be dead!" So I'll take the change in basketball style in stride and adjust my fan status as needed. I also will look at the change to come in the country and remember my favorite words from the Bible "and it came to pass.."
Peace.