In baseball, home plate is where you begin your journey and also your destination. You venture out onto the bases, to first and second and third, always striving to return to the spot from which you began. There is danger on the basepath—pick-offs, rundowns, force-outs, double plays—and safety only back at home. I am not saying, as a true fan would, that baseball is the key to life; rather, life is the key to baseball. We play or watch this game because it draws pictures of our desires.
ATTRIBUTION:
Scott Sanders (b. 1945), U.S. educator, author. Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World, ch. 2, Beacon (1993).
