5/15/2014
By Ingrid Sapona
The past few years a friend and I have participated in a
team sport and have been on the same team. Our player-coach headed two teams:
the Red Team, which played in the Monday league, and the Blue Team, which
played in the Wednesday league. We were on the Red Team. This year the sport’s
organizers decided to only have games on Thursdays. By way of e-mail, earlier
this spring the coach asked us all (members of both teams) what we wanted to do,
given this change.
Because my friend has another regular social engagement,
she’s unavailable on Thursdays. I confided to my friend that I suspected that
if the members of the Blue Team are all available on Thursdays, the coach would
go with the Blue Team. My rationale was that there’s no point in splitting the
teams to form a new one for Thursday nights, if one of the teams could make the
switch. That’s exactly how it panned out and about a month ago the coach told
us she decided to go with the Blue Team.
I completely understood (and expected) the decision and was
fine with it. Indeed, I was even a bit relieved because last season there were
many nights I came home after a game feeling rather beat up. After the decision
was made, I shared my mild relief with my friend. Though she was less content
with the decision, she understood it too, especially given her unavailability
on Thursdays. After that, my friend and I talked about the fact that it might
be fun to get together and do other things on Monday nights. We also agreed that
if we found we really missed not playing, on any given Monday we could try to
sub on other teams who might be shorthanded.
Well, just as the season was to begin, we got word that the
organizers decided to go back to the old format of two leagues – one on Mondays
and one on Thursdays. So, our coach e-mailed us to ask if we wanted to play on
Mondays, starting in the second week of the season. Before either one of us
responded to the coach, we discussed it.
Unlike my friend, who was keen to commit to playing on
Mondays, I was torn. I had mentally adjusted to having the season off and I was
looking forward to being able to schedule other activities on Monday nights. My
friend, who wanted the two of us to commit to the team, pointed out that during
the course of the season there would likely be games called off due to bad
weather, so we could do something on those evenings. It was clear she wanted me
to agree to play and she was irritated that I wasn’t jumping at the idea.
I then suggested a possible compromise: since the season is
broken into three series, perhaps we could sit out the first series (since it
was very short notice) but we could offer to play in the second and third
series, if the coach wants us. Of course, as I pointed out to my friend, the risk
with this “solution” is that players from the Blue Team might be willing to
play on Mondays and Thursdays, in which case we may well not be needed later in
the season. That was a risk I was willing to take.
Though, at first, she seemed to like my idea, it soon became
clear my friend didn’t want to take that chance – she wanted to commit to the
whole season. We went back and forth a few more times and when it didn’t seem
we’d reach agreement, I tried to put an end to the discussion by saying we’re
both entitled to our own decision. Frustrated, she then accused me of being inflexible
and stubborn. The comment stung and my initial reaction was to refute the
labels. But, I could understand why my not wanting to continue discussing it might
have seemed stubborn to her and I didn’t think she said it to hurt me.
Instead, I explained the way I see it, which is that our
disagreement really boils down to the fact that each of us simply wants to have
it our way, which I think is simple human nature. The coach wanted to field as
cohesive a team as she could, which is why she decided to go with the Blue Team
initially. My friend wanted to be able to play on the night she was free. And I
wanted to be able to sit out part of the season. Unfortunately, as my friend’s
comment made it clear, it’s also human nature to get upset when you realize
that the end result of everyone wanting to have it their way is that chances
are no one will get 100% of what they want. But, the way I see it – even if holding
fast to your decision makes you seem stubborn and ultimately means you only get
some of what you want, that’s still better than agreeing to do something you
don’t want to do.
© 2014 Ingrid Sapona
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