Hope Floats On Like the Good-Year Blimp

A friend of mine recently (several months ago now...) asked why I take such a stock in professional sports. I explained that if the Rangers started to skid I was going to hurl myself off of a bridge. Shortly thereafter, the Rangers jumped off of that bridge for me, so I didn't have to worry about it. Anyways, she didn't understand why I would concern myself so much with the actions of others that seemingly have no affect on me personally. And, of course, I thought about it a bit. I think the reason that people care so much about professional sports is because it gives them a sense of hope, in different aspects.
Even the worst teams out there are reliable, because every game is a brand new day for that team. It could pull off an upset, anything can happen and when something surprising does finally take place, there is no greater pride than knowing that you were supporting them since day one. In addition, your life can be going up or down, you might be happy or sad, but your team is still going to play the games on its schedule. Sports teams will always be there for you as a way to pass your time and keep you occupied when life is overwhelming.
On top of that, athletes themselves are the closest things we have to superheros, no matter what types of lives they live outside of their respective arenas. To watch them compete, you are able to see things that you yourself are in no way remotely capable of. They pull off nearly superhuman feats, things that you could only dream of being able to do, and they do it with a calm and cool demeanor that should never accompany such an awesome display of talent. They are everything we wish we could be, and to be able to support that is as close as we are ever going to get to it ourselves.
Another friend, even more recently, asked me what we need hope for. She wondered why we can't have faith in ourselves; why we can't be happy with who we are and let that be enough. That put a lot into perspective for me, and really made me think. I mean, I would love the world to be a simple place where everyone was happy all day every day, but it does not seem plausible to me at this juncture of life. It seems like a child's fantasy that adults give up on. But should we give up on it? I believe so much in the power of the human mind and in the strength of the human spirit -- shouldn't this be the overall justification of those things? What if everything we could ever want was right here, within ourselves? Would we even want it? I guess clowns and comedians would be out of work if the world were a perfect place.