I was reading a draft of an LGBTQ baseball novel for young adults the other day, and a metaphor really struck me.

A coach said to a struggling player, “Remember we’re supposed to be having fun. Just have fun and hit the ball sometimes. That’s all you have to do.”

I’m not much into baseball now but I was as a boy, and that really connected with me. Baseball is a game that can really teach grounding and patience, because 350 is a great batting average. There’s something edifying about a game where success means hitting the ball only a little more than once out of every three times at bat.

Something just about any baseball coach will tell players is that the worst they can do at the plate is try too hard. You have to relax and accept your strikes.

Not a bad way to look at things.