The Art of Losing
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
– Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.
Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art”
Well, well, well, Bulldogs fans. Here we are. Losing in overtime. Winless in the conference. We are the hockey equivalent of bloggers, chilling in the WCHA’s mom’s basement. You know when RWD is bringing out the poetry that it’s time to hunker down, squeeze our eyes tightly shut, and dream of better days.
Just jumped on the tUMD train recently? Welcome to real Bulldog fandom. Next stop, Loserville, USA. This is why the No Name fans, the Gopher fans, the BC fans of the world will never, ever appreciate a national championship as much as we do. For them, a tough season is missing the Frozen Four. A really bad stretch is maybe missing the NCAAs a few times. Poor little rich teams. For us, a tough season is 10th place, 12th place, loss after loss after loss. For us, a tough season is playing what allegedly was our best hockey and coming away with one little point, after surrendering leads. If that is our best hockey, hold on to your butts.
I would suggest fleeing the bandwagon now, if you don’t think you have the stomach for losing. Even if the team turns things around this year, there will surely be terrible years ahead. Locusts, plagues, ice rinks turning to blood, etc. Please leave, the rest of us need some leg room. We’ve been here awhile, and we’re going to need to get comfortable.
Runnin' With the Dogs 