When it really isn't love anymore.

I'm more or less accepting the fact that my Chicago Cubs baseball team is mediocre. Not bad. Not good. Just run-of-the-mill mediocre. At the beginning of every season I delude myself. Into thinking that maybe this is the year that the Cubs excel. And go to the World Series for the first time since 1945. And to win it all for the first time since 1908. But alas, once again, the Cubs will become loveable losers. That's the consolation. To be loveable. And maybe that's even better than winning and being unloveable. True love, you know, requires unconditional acceptance. In that sense, the Cubs have been good teachers. They put me to a test season after season after season. Endlessly. If I require the Cubs to be winners to obtain my love, it really isn't true love. --Jim Broede