Document text
Chance encounter turns to love By Sharon Johnson Aug 21, 2022 12:30 PM A A I have a new love interest. Ted Lasso has touched my heart. I’d heard the name previously, but I never totally understood who he was. I recall people smiling and laughing when they shared a story about him, or the television series by his name. I’ve had a lot of other things on my mind in the past year, and I never paid full attention. Until now. I fell in love late on a Sunday afternoon. For some reason, Sundays are particularly difficult days for me since my husband’s death. On this particular Sunday, having devoured every section of two morning newspapers, I was feeling at odds. I sought refuge in my iPad. I was going to use it to return to reading a rather dry historical novel I’d started the day before when I accidentally clicked on my Apple TV icon. I did not even know I had an Apple TV icon! Click! It became immediately obvious I had loads of iPad/Apple movies available to me — who knew?! — an unanticipated gift. Let this be clear: I am not a TV watcher, other than CNN in the early morning just to ensure that overnight, world threats are being held at bay. Truth be told, I have not entirely mastered the complicated remote mechanism required for each of the TVs in our/my household. Note to self: Identify someone in the family who needs a television set. Back to “Ted Lasso.” I binge-watched a whole season of this incredibly engaging series in two short days. If you are already familiar with this streaming option, you hopefully agree it is five-star entertainment. The program is about kindness. Soccer and kindness. That said, it is not a family series. There‘s a lot of profanity. Mainly, constant use of the “F” word, the one that rhymes with “duck.“ I think they overuse that word. In one episode, I heard it 17 times before I stopped counting. Powerful word, as was the episode. Despite the profanity, and a certain amount of difficulty in understanding the strong British accents in a few of the characters, Ted and his team made me feel like we have a chance to make the world a better place. There were repeated situations in which characters become angry, belligerent (remember, this is competitive soccer we are talking about!) or grief-stricken and disheartened (loss, failed marriages and self-doubt) but, usually with a little storytelling and a freshened perspective from Ted, they seize the moment and tackle the presenting problem with authenticity, creativity and good-heartedness. Heavy on the good-heartednes i.e., kindness. Watching this series made me want to pay for attention to the little things I can do in a given day to make the people I encounter happier. I suspect the poet and author, Maya Angelo, now deceased, would have liked “Ted Lasso.” After all it was she who said, “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Amen. Sharon Johnson is a retired educator. Reach her at [email protected]