Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Just Relax

I'm not dead yet.



That's the good news.  I posted right before Game 7 of the World Series, and have been absent from the blog ever since.  While the loss for KC that night was heart-breaking, it was not what sent me away.  I was gone because of LIFE.  Full-time work + wife + two little boys + holidays + church involvement + sleep push the ol' blog farther back on the priority list.  I still am reading everything (and don't even have a #WalletCard yet), but just haven't been posting.

One thing that I saw around New Year's Day was the proliferation of "Goals" posts.  "How I did on my 2014 Goals"- and "These are my brand-spanking-new 2015 Goals"-type posts filled my feed for about a week.  It's fun to see what people are collecting, but each of them made me feel a little....sad.  This is because every recap features FAILURE.  I didn't see a single one where someone said "10-for-10....it was a perfect year in my collection!!"  It was more like "I only added 1 auto of Player A instead of 3, and am only 62% done on my 19xx Topps set.  What a bummer."

May I offer some advice?  JUST RELAX.   You're not a "BAD COLLECTOR" because you didn't meet the arbitrary standard you set for yourself.  Our human nature is to try to prove to ourselves by our own performance that we are valuable and that we belong at the cool table.  However, this hobby is not something where you have to earn your way in.  It's a big table with room for everyone.  Don't stress and don't feel bad if things don't go as you planned.  It's OK.  I will read your posts no matter how frequently you post them or whether you have finally organized your card desk.  This is all for fun - you don't have card-obligations to anyone else....we can give each other grace not to be "perfect collectors" all the time.  However, I do chuckle/cringe whenever I see the "I'm sorry I only posted 5 times instead of 7 last week" posts....that will never be me.

Can we do that?  Can we just enjoy our cards, have fun, help each other out when we can, and let the Chipz fall where they may?