We Just Sat There

We have been going to McDaniel's basketball games for over 3 months now.

We have noticed that a trend is in full force.

We get assaulted with intense music during warm-ups.

Assaulted.

Loud, violent, unintelligible noise.

Last night put me over the edge.

I drove a car load of the freshman girls on the team to the high school hosting the tournament.

(Our high school doesn't see fit to provide the freshman transportation 

to ANY of their sporting events. 

But that is another whole rant for another time.)

The girls decided they needed "pump-me-up" music for the ride to the game.

I braced myself for WHO KNOWS WHAT that meant 

to the 14 and 15-year-old girls in my car.

A little shell-shocked as you can imagine 

by 3 months of assaulting warm-up music.

They played Jonas Brothers.

And, bless their hearts, 

High School Musical's "Get Your Head in the Game."

And oddly enough, 

Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar."

I have to say, I was not pumped up but I wasn't wanting to drive ice picks into my ear drums either so it was a pleasant drive.

Ellie and I were the only fans in the gym so early so we sat down and pulled out homework and a book.

It was lovely UNTIL…

To call what they played music is a compliment I am just not able to give.

And the decibel in which they played it, well, 

I am pretty sure pilots flying in the airspace above us, 

were annoyed.

I watched the girls on our team look at each other wide-eyed and questioning.

Ellie and I tried to roll with it at first,

continuing our reading and homework,

UNTIL,

I kid you not,

the "musician", 

(and I use that term loosely so as not to offend those deserving of the label)

started barking in the middle of the song.

It seems as if we could do nothing but sit there.

As parents arrived,

they all made similar wide-eyed and questioning faces.

At one time, I really wondered 

if my ears had started bleeding. 

When the noise finally stopped so the game could begin,

one of the fathers of our girls hollered,

"Thank you!"

At every time-out and an excruciatingly long half-time,

the noise came back on loud enough to wake the dead.

The poor coaches screamed themselves hoarse in time-out huddles trying to be heard over what at times sounded like the devil himself shouting booming synthesized raps.

One of the parents pointed out how loud the buzzer was in the gym announcing the end of the quarters. 

I told her they could sound that buzzer for 25 minutes straight and I'd still enjoy it more than the music they were playing.

She shook my hand in agreement.

We also agreed that if they played The Carpenters that loud, it would not have been good on the ears

but at least we could've sang along.

But here is my biggest take away of the entire night:

no one did anything about it.

Not the coaches.

Not the refs.

Not the players.

Not one of us parents sitting in the bleachers.

Not a single one of us liked what was happening.

That was apparent.

But we just sat there.

Mindy at A Dandelion Diary so beautifully handles this topic in Getting wet, diving in, going deep.

She says where fear rears its ugly head, Love is greater.

Was it fear of causing a scene why we just sat there?

Was it doubt that we'd be heard why we just sat there?

Was it complacency that it really wasn't that bad why we just sat there?

It has made me think.

 Where in other areas of my life,

do I just sit there?