Comebacks

I was attending a meeting today wiith a psychiatric professional and had a profound revelation. We were discussing my treatment in the partial hospital program I've been attending for the last two weeks here in Portland and how that was coming to an end tomorrow.

i suffer from schizo-affective disorder with bipolar being the affective component, a very tough row to hoe. And the professional mentioned sports comebacks as being a big theme in my many attempts at recovery, which then got me to thinking about the most famous sports comeback of my lifetime: the Doug Flutie touchdown pass that beat Miami down in the Orange Bowl the day atfter Thanksgiving, 1984.

What I remember most about that game was that it was one of the greatest games i've even seen played. Both teams battling up and down the sidelines for the full four quarters. And in some awful rainy conditions, Bernie Kosar led u of m to the leading and presumably game winning touchdown with about 30 seconds to play. While the announcers, fans and surely most of the players were resigned to a BC loss, the camera focused on Flutie resolutely shaking his head up and down, saying to himself "THe game's not over. There's still some time left on the clock. We've practiced for these types of situations. And we still have a shot." He looked energized, knowing that victory was still possible.

So what does Flutie do? Just as they surely practiced a dozen of so times over the course of the years, he threw two sideline passes to get the ball to the middle of the field, then heaved one into to endzone. That was famously caught by Gerard Phalen

Preparation
Practice
Probailities

all led up to the winning score. and my favorite Boston sports moment,

We who suffer from serious mental illness can take heart from the Magic Flutie. We can all prepare for the coming symptoms. We can all practice safety plans and safe coping skills to keep us safe. And we can all take heart in the probability the if we follow these steps we can have a good and fulfilling life.