Rooting for the Underdog

If you are like most folks, you tend to root for the underdog is most matters of life. I think we all do. As many of you know, one of my great joys is bird feeding. But one thing you have to realize if you are going to be an ardent feeder of songbirds is that you are also going to attract hawks, who want to make a meal out of those darling little feathered cuties coming to your yard. All during the fall and winter months, this is a common occurrence in our backyard. Even though I've been told on many an occasion that "the hawks have to eat too" and "this is the way God made them," I always, ALWAYS cheer when the little guys escape when the enemy rushes in. And I always, ALWAYS am sad when a hawk gets his dinner from among my clientele.

And of course, there's sports. Unless, of course, it's one of the teams that I'm a fan of, I usually am pushing for whoever is not favored to win. Now in baseball, it looks as though there is a good chance that both of my teams, the Yankees and the Phillies, are headed to the playoffs, and if either is favored in a particular game, you can be sure I won't be rooting for the underdog in that case. Now, please don't ask me what I will do if they face each other in the World Series! Red shirt when they're in Philly maybe and blue shirt when they're in New York?

This brings me to the point of my post. One of my very favorite journalists, Thomas Sowell, wrote a great article today. It's all about underdogs, starting with an interesting synopsis of the career of baseball catcher Ernie Lombardi of the former New York Giants. I really like the way Mr. Sowell ties this all to himself personally. It's unusual for him to talk about his own life and he makes such a good analogy to what many of us believe politically, that I thought it was good reading to help us keep our perspective on all these things.

I'd like to add that first we look to God to take care of us. Then we pray for a strong initiative, and lots of determination. Just like Mr. Sowell had after his rough beginning. Read his article here.

Then I was thinking about the many underdogs among us who could really use a helping hand. I sure wish more of the many churches of our country would step up to the plate. Maybe that would help to get the government out of the batter's box.