In the Transition
March Madness is roaring to a close, and if you’ve spent any time at all imbibing in it then you’ve been exposed to a maddening collection of sports cliché and jargon. Analysts, coaches, even players talk endlessly about what happens “in the paint,” “on the perimeters,” “from the top of the key” and “from way downtown.”
I ignore a lot of it, but there’s one phrase that intrigues me: “in the transition.” There’s a lot of commentary about what a team does “in the transition” between defense and offense. The good teams apparently do more than just amble to the other end of the court. They use those brief seconds to assess their competition and set up the next play. If they’re paying attention, they may see an opportunity to eliminate the transition completely with a “half-court lob” and a “rim-rattling dunk.” When that happens, the broadcasters say “they’re winning in the transitions.”
As important as transitions are in basketball, they’re even more so in life. The long stable periods of life can become times of routine, complacency, lethargy, laziness. Transitions are times when we can make adjustments, get ourselves back on track, maybe choose a new track. Transitions are when the real action takes place.
In my own life there have been long spans of time when, in retrospect, I didn’t accomplish much. Separating those periods have been times of transition brought by job changes, health crises, other life events. Some transitions have been exciting, some have been tragic. Some I instigated myself, and some were forced on me. I didn’t know it at the time, but all have been opportunities for new direction and energy.
Some people go so far as to say we’re living in one big transition. Perhaps that is what John Lennon was expressing when he sang, “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” But plans for what? Heaven?
Maybe so, but there’s still much to do now. We’ve not been created to dribble in place and run out the clock. If that’s what we’re doing – or if that’s what it feels like we’re doing – then it’s time for a change. It’s time for a transition that will put us in position for a rim-rattling dunk.