Seriously, Not That Big a Deal

There's a trend that's been going on for years now, but I've been noticing it more as of late. This was really brought to my attention while watching the Olympics. We, as a society, tend to celebrate way too much.

I'm not talking about a birthday or anniversary. I'm referring to the smallest bits of tripe one can imagine. All of a sudden, it's a big deal. Last night, I was watching some gymnastics. (Yes, gymnastics.) Although all of the ladies did things I couldn't dream of, a few of them seemed to perform flawlessly. If you do really well, or do something that's never been done before, then celebrate, by all means. However, if you bobble, stumble, fall, or just plain suck, there's no need to be all excited and get all huggy and crap.

It wasn't so much the gymnasts that aggravate me with this. The bulk of my anger stems from two words: women's volleyball. Seriously, I think they have a friggin' group hug after every point. The hugs last longer than the point in a lot of cases. I realize there are some times they may discuss strategy. Typically, though, it's a bunch of "Good Job!" and "Great work!" and whatnot. No, you didn't do a good job. The other team served the ball into the net. If you want to walk around the net, hug them, and tell them "You suck", I'm totally cool with that. But you did not do a good job. To add to my frustration, immediately after a big group hug, they'll serve it out of bounds or choke somehow. Where's the hug for that?

I could go off on a big rant here about how our kids should get F's, be graded in red ink, and not always get a soccer trophy. However, I'm getting my heart rate up again thinking about these hugging volleyball players, so I might just save that for another post. Maybe I should just think happy thoughts, like that the sweaty-girl hug is not really about celebrating. Hmmmm....