Friendly Competition

March is here, and that means that March Madness is on its way! Last year, in the extended Morris family, I got the family together to join this friendly little competition. Sadly, I finished 6 out of 12. I had a good run of it, and held second place for a large portion of the tournament, but dropped quickly and permanently in the final days. My cousin Debbie's husband, Paul (who I guess is now my cousin?) ended up winning the tournament, much to Morris dismay (because he doesn't actually have Morris as a last name). Because, while we may love our family to tears, we aren't exactly gracious losers, and each and every one of us has a fatal flaw - we're what some may consider TOO competitive.

Any Morris reading this right now, is laughing that claim off and we're all saying the same thing "there is no such thing as being TOO competitive". And, well that is exactly my point. It has been brought to my attention by a handful of my friends, that my competitiveness exceeds that of the average individual (this is the nice way of saying it). But, in my family this "competitive spirit", shall we call it, is absolutely normal. We don't just "play games" like the average family. We make spreadsheets recording win and loss records (among many, many, many other standings), we brand tee-shirts, visors and wrist bands with the Morris logo, we spend nearly our entire family camping trip (sometimes into the wee hours of the night, with only our lantern light to guide us) huddled around two picnic tables competing for the coveted title of Canasta Champion.

And here's what I think our mentality boils down to... it's just not as much fun to play if you don't have a desire to win. Having been an athlete for the majority of my life, I've been on dozens of different teams that thrive on competition. I've grown up surrounded by this similar desire to win. However, my closest friends in high school didn't have this... they were dancers. Ha! So imagine our senior trip to Tahoe where the six of us girls decided to pull out the game Pictionary for a little "fun". This is when my dancer friends got a glimpse into the life of a Morris. We haven't played Pictionary since. It was at this time that I also learned that in certain environments and with certain people I have to curb my enthusiasm for winning. Fortunately for me, my family isn't one of these environments.

So, the extended Morris family (including the Tates and the Blastics) have entered into the March Madness Tournament for 2008. This little tournament is sure to include dozens of mass emails in which we trash one another endlessly. But in the end, I suppose it is this "friendly competition" that brings us all together a few times a year and for that reason alone, no one can ridicule us for being TOO competitive. And on that note...

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!