Underdog Upsets

March Madness.
It's dominated my past few blog posts.  I can't stop watching it.  I've bookmarked my bracket standings (which are no good).  And I place myself in locations where I can constantly know what's going on.  It's sad, maybe.  But I'm totally intrigued.  I'm totally sucked in.

What is it about us that seems to love March Madness?  Even my friends who don't like sports have filled out their brackets, have tuned in to the games, and have trash-talked others with their picks.

I think we love March Madness so much because it sets the stage for so many underdog upsets to occur.  But what is it about the underdog upset that we love so much?

Think of Susan Boyle.  Secretariat.  Miracle on Ice.  Butler.

We love these stories.  We love stories about people who beat the odds.  We love stories about teams who overcome the expected.

And I think it's because it ignites our desire for fairness and justice.  Considered an "underdog," insinuates some sort of disadvantage.  Disadvantage in skill, ability, talent, gift, whatever -- they're not as "advantaged" as the expected winner.  And so we love to see justice served -- we love to see the humble made kings, we love to see the meek made conquerors.

I think it's also, maybe even moreso, because we all see a little bit of ourselves in the underdog.  We, as part of the human race, were created to be dreamers.  We were created to believe we would have purpose, we would make a difference, we could live an epic life.  But the world begins to jade us, the world begins to tell us to listen to reason, the world begins to tell us we are naive as dreamers, the world begins to chip and claw away at our dreams.  And so eventually the odds say we will, like most everyone else, live a mediocre life.  We will settle.

But when March Madness comes around, and when Butler beats Pitt [2011] (or Michigan State [2010]), we feel a little hero rise up within us and say, "we can beat the odds!"  "We can dream!  And we can live with purpose in a world that can seem purposeless."

I love March Madness because I think it reveals shades of redemption.  March Madness paints broad, sweeping strokes of redemption -- restoring the humble to kings and restoring the dream of a life lived with purpose.