Ultimate Zeal

This last weekend I made a trip to Tulsa, the gem of the Southern Midwest, with a group of people who play this sport with me called Ultimate Frisbee. We composed a team to participate in what we in the biz like to call…a Frisbee Tournament. Let me explain the premise of the game just in case there are some recreational noobs out there. Most people will try and tell you that the game is kind of like football, rugby, soccer, kickball, water polo, curling, golf, and clay shooting all rolled into one, but this is simply not the case. To put it very simply (every sport is bogged down with rules and regulations and Ultimate Frisbee is no exception) a team scores by catching a frisbee in the opposing team’s end zone, a player can’t move once they have caught it, and the frisbee must be thrown within ten seconds when it is not caught in the end zone. If the frisbee hits the ground or is intercepted then it is a turnover. Now I know that by most people’s standards the word “competition” does not come to mind when one thinks of Frisbee. But I’d say that I’ve been to around 30 ultimate tournaments and each one has had its ups and downs, but every single one of them has been viciously competitive. Usually by the end of the tournament I’m dead tired, covered with scrapes and bruises, and disheartened by our defeats. But one thing that I do love about the game is that it reminds me how easy it can be to find passion in one’s life whether it’s frisbee, baseball, video games, comic books, or the Dewey Decimal System. Some teams that come to tournaments drive for days and sometimes only in one car (that means at least 7 people). There have been some people who I’ve met that basically live their lives around the calendar of Ultimate Frisbee events without a steady job or residence. It is simply all they care about. Now I’m sure to most people this sounds ridiculous. And I’m sure that most of the people that play ultimate would think the idea ridiculous before they ever touched a frisbee. It makes me think that we rarely ever choose our passions, but more often than not our passions choose us. And when they do we have no choice but to submit to them.