Adam Smith’s advice to Cubs fans

Some in the blogosphere will be in a bad mood for the next few days, and for good reason. By the end of the evening, either myself or Tom Maguire will be joining them. What can one say? Surprisingly, for someone who knew nothing about baseball, Adam Smith gives some pretty good advice on this subject in his other classic, The Theory of Moral Sentiments:

Are you in adversity? Do not mourn in the darkness of solitude, do not regulate your sorrow according to the indulgent sympathy of your intimate friends; return, as soon as possible, to the day-light of the world and of society. Live with strangers, with those who know nothing, or care nothing about your misfortune; do not even shun the company of enemies; but give yourself the pleasure of mortifying their malignant joy, by making them feel how little you are affected by your calamity, and how much you are above it.

Tough words to live by, I must confess. He’s still right, though. UPDATE: For those who find Smith of little comfort, Julia Keller has a nice article in the Chicago Tribune. The highlights:

“If we lived every day with our emotions as raw as they get in sports, we’d be dead in a week,” said John Jeremiah Sullivan, a sportswriter who works for GQ magazine. People can only take so much of the psychological tsunami known as the Cubs (or White Sox, Bulls, Bears and Blackhawks) season. But why do they take it at all? Everybody knows there are more important things than baseball; more important than those killer walks given up by Kerry Wood on Wednesday; more important than the zeal exhibited by the accidental scapegoat the night before. There are wars, floods and famines. There are tyrants and despots. To be upset about the outcome of a game–a mere game, amid the creeping dangers of an unstable world–is folly. Bill Savage, a Chicago native who teaches English at Northwestern University, said he has no trouble understanding why the Cubs evoke such zealotry from fans. “Last night [Tuesday], when [Alex] Gonzalez made that error, my heart sank because I’d invested so much. It’s the degree to which you, the audience, choose to get invested emotionally. No, the bandwagon-jumpers don’t suffer as much–but they don’t enjoy it as much, either. The reward is commensurate with your investment.”

Indeed. Andrew Sullivan’s boyfriend can relate.