‘Twas NCAA Tournament time, of which I know or care little.

(About the tournament, I typically give not a fiddle.)

Yet with the town abuzz, and friends and family so excited,

Not to join in the fun seemed silly and shortsighted.

With husband in his suit, and I in my yoga pants,

The family hoped to predict the national champs perchance.

Husband followed his heart as he selected his winners;

One daughter predicted through speed (the brackets stood betwixt her and dinner).

Another examined team uniform aesthetics to make her decisions;

The son’s predictions reasonably relied on rankings and divisions.

My process required I turn to the spiritual.

I consulted my Magic Eight ball for this pre-tourney ritual.

My predictions held strong through the first set of brackets;

Yet in the Sweet Sixteen picks, the Eight Ball didn’t hack it.

But neither did the heart’s hopes, uniform panache, quick decisions or rankings;

Nope, it all our predictive strategies are tanking.

It’s likely our predictive methods likely mirror the ones we use elsewhere –

Those we use to make the world seem more knowable, friendly, and fair.

What I’ve discerned from our tournament predictions is this:

Hanging out in the world is a business of risks.

To ease our worries about the unknown and the unexpected,

We rely on all the tricks, beliefs, superstitions, and strategies we’ve collected.

And while this conjuring may give us a false sense of knowing and a hint of relief,

It’s only through connection to one another and the moment where we find peace.

p.s. Do you think my Magic Eight Ball is mad at me?

***

Photo Credit:  Seeger, J. (January 31, 2011).  Magic Eight Ball.  Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/