There are so many times when I’m reading books to my kids, and I have to alter the book to de-emphasize the winning aspect. For instance, one of my kids’ favorite books is “Good night, Cubs”. One of the lines in the book says, “The teams take the field. We can’t lose; we must win.”
How awful is that? Seriously. We can’t lose? Really? Um, yes, we can lose. And um, this is the Cubs. This book was written after the 2013 season when the Cubs were coming off 96 and 101-loss back-to-back seasons. That’s actually part of what I like being a Cubs fan. Losing is part of our history. Cubs fans used to be able to accept loss. I really think that’s part of what makes the Cubs such a popular brand. We used to be able to accept what happens in life, and love our team.
Now whenever I read that page, I change the words from “We can’t lose; we must win” to “We can lose, or we can win. Either way, that’s fine. The point of the game is to play your best and have fun.”
This notion of hating to lose has seeped so much into our society.