Goldfish and Poetry

Another year drawing to a close. It’s been both a pleasure and a privilege to be able to share thoughts with you this year. Thank you for caring to read what I labor to write. In this final journal entry of 2023, I give the last word to Ted Lasso.

For those unfamiliar with the show, its central character is an American college football coach from the Great Plains who gets hired to lead an English soccer team. What he lacks in knowledge of the game he makes up for with folksy charm, disarming self-deprecation, unflagging optimism and Kansas kindness. Ted is as full of wit and wisdom as he is relentlessly—and, to some, irritatingly—positive.

As Lassoisms go, probably the first to come to most fans’ minds is “be a goldfish.” Ted’s way of telling first a player and later his son to leave mistakes behind.