Baseball Season

Niece Jennifer and her son, Jason

Baseball season has begun here and since I have become a fan again, I'm excited!  My nephew Jason's first game was on Thursday night and his team didn't do very well.  I rode the 2 1/2 hours round trip with his mother, Jennifer, and we had a wonderful talk.  She has an undergraduate degree is psychology, a masters in public health and is a rep for a pharmaceutical company so we had a lot to talk about.  Mostly we spoke of her career on the way down and her family on the way back.

She reminds me a lot of my daughter, Barbara, who has degrees in psychology.  As we talked about Jen's family dynamics, I was reminded of transactional analysis and what it had done for Barbara, personally and professionally, over the past few months.  So I gave her a mini-version of TA101, "Parent", "Adult", and "Child" ego states, along with how one "hooks" the other and a little bit about "games".  We all get frustrated dealing with out parents, or have been, and Jennifer is no different.  So I was hoping that an understanding of TA might lessen her frustration, increase her understanding of the dynamics and maybe even bring about some changes.  As we were finishing our talk, I promised to give her a copy of "Born to Win", one of the books that changed my life.  Barbara has only read "I'm OK, You're OK", which was another life changer for me and BtW is next on her list, I think.  

So while the baseball game itself wasn't all that good (it rained the whole time, too), the trip down and back made the evening more than worthwhile.  Being of help to Jennifer in some small way enhanced my self esteem and boosted my spirits, and who knows, her good relationship with her parents might become even better for the years they have left.  I hope so. 

The Baltimore Orioles have their spring training here and I'm really looking forward to watching those games.  They play every day, just about, at 1:05, so it's there if I want it.  That will be fun, I'm sure.  March 1 is the start of that season and I can't wait to hear the ump call out, "PLAY BALL!"