Same Game Two Perspectives

As it turns out, T-ball has been pretty revealing in how different our two boys are.

It's true that they are two years apart and have very distinct personalities. But it shows up even more in this game.

We notice that Karsten does everything with great gusto. When the boys were out fielding, only a couple of boys were up to take turns batting. As the ball came bouncing out to the field, it looked like a school of fish all gathering around a speck. Even if the ball was hit way out of his direction, Karsten ran after it with everything he had. Most of the time, he didn't even get close to touching the ball, but ran after it anyway.

Zachary on the other hand, after seeing how it all plays out after a couple of times, had a different approach. As the ball was hit and seeing that it was far from him, seemed to calculate that he wasn't getting anywhere near the ball and sauntered over in that direction casually. Seeing that there were ten other kids clamouring over the ball, he observed the mayhem and then seemed relieved to go back to his post.

Running bases was the same. Karsten stood with his foot on the plate and in his ready-to-run position. Although he didn't quite know when he needed to run, he was ready. Zachary nearly sat on his base, and was putting the sand in a mound. He told us later that he was building a sand castle. So at each base, we saw Zachary playing with the sand and would be startled out of his castle building as someone hollered at him to run to the other base.

I thought maybe T-ball was just not something Zachary enjoys. But the next day at home, he was imitating the coaches; "Outfielders, ARE YOU READY???" he yelled in his best coaches' voice to Karsten as he waited for the ball to be hit. Maybe it wasn't so much that he wasn't interested in the game.

I thought it'd be the exact opposite because of their ages. But you never know how it all shakes out--given the same circumstances people can respond totally differently. That is how life is. I have always wondered how it is that people can come from similar situations and respond totally differently. Or how people can be given the same gifts and use them totally differently.

That is something we will never quite figure out.