An Advanced Degree in Pain Management

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/opinion/new-york-mets-mlb-fans.html

("Why I Still Love the New York Mets")

It is the hope-expectation mathematical formula that sustains us, and drives us crazy. It is what keeps us involved, keeps us coming back. And sometimes tests our limits of endurance.

I am a fan of the "old time" New York sports teams, the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Rangers. I have basked in the glory and suffered in the troughs. But the one thing I have never done is walk away.

As long as I maintain, in relative equilibrium, the possibility of greatness against the reality of mediocrity or worse, I can survive. It is only when my skills at this advanced mathematical calculation falter that the agony sets in.

And so I would suggest, this is the plight for beleaguered Met fans this season. Steve Cohen and his billions gave the distinct impression to those who had long been praying for a minor miracle that the gods had now cast their lot with the Amazin's. Thus, as this season began, the hope-expectation quotient was off the chart, the brain and the heart both succumbing to the vision of a ticker tape parade.

My advice to Mr. Brooks is to take out his calculator, sit down at his computer, or reach for paper and pencil. Move a decimal point from here to there, multiply by this, divide by that and rework the figures until the numerator and denominator, the division and subtraction, the darkness and the light, the yin and yang, are in equipoise.

That is what is demanded of us. An advanced degree in pain management.