I have always been drawn to the idea that sports provide ways of thinking about life. As a tennis player, I constantly intone, “One point at a time.” As a former basketball player (for a mercifully short period), I was likely told, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Sports were first and foremost fun and exercise, but they felt deeper too: they were an arena for learning lessons - “sport metaphors” - about the world outside of sports.
But as I pondered this idea more deeply, I began to wonder about its limits. Sports are not like life in many ways.