People are calling Jets Season ‘Lost’- no way
It’s not that simple to say the Jets season is lost. First off what would that statement even mean? The season can’t be found, that it is missing or something else. Perhaps ‘lost’ is just another media cliche being thrown around for a year where nothing good happened. As some one who’s happy to use any cliche when I can, I do understand using one. That point before was not a shot, it’s hard to come up with glowing superlatives time after time with an organization so steady in it’s course as the Winnipeg Jets.
If you aren’t familiar with Taosim perhaps this brief description below will help you understand what is written after.
The term Tao means "way", "path", or "principle", and can also be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, however, Tao denotes something that is both the source of, and the force behind, everything that exists
You can read more about from this Wiki page should you want to dive further.
The one thing about the Winnipeg Jets and their parent organization TNSE is that they have a path or way to their goals. It is theirs and followed with strict adherence. So when the term ‘lost’ gets used, in regards to this season, is it really accurate?
Losing a season would imply, by the most simple definition, that it’s gone and cannot be found. Never to be used or seen again. I would suggest thats not the case with the season the Winnipeg Jets will soon conclude in just over a month’s time. It’s here, it is data, it will be data that lives forever, it is important, it is the way.
The Jets by their adherence to their principal(s) allowed for this season to happen. They followed their way but it does not mean that because it did not meet fans’ expectations that it is not without value. There was something learned, perhaps many somethings.
Take this interpretation of one of the facets of Taoism
Taoist propriety and ethics may vary depending on the particular school, but in general they tend to emphasize wu-wei (action through non-action), "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity,
But if it is your belief that this season is not lost what does it lead us to believe according to Taoist thought (and my position in this piece)?
Certainly the Jets have learned something about the team as they pursue the path and way. They may also have come to understand something about their own process as to how they follow the path. Finally they could also gain awareness about certain players as they faced adversity. Basically the season is not lost if you use it the right way. That would be the most Taoist of thinking.
I could recite Taoist teachings and stories that would show how the impact of one negative is used as a positive by Taoist practitioners and should be for the Jets. The season may be ‘lost’ in terms of not making the playoffs but it has value, and much can be learned from it. How situations were handled, how the roster was built, how the team was coached, and so on and so on. The Jets task is to follow that path this season has opened. To use it as opportunity not bemoan it’s happening. That is the task.
The Taoist path or the way is simply called that Tao and in Winnipeg with regards to the Jets we call it the process. If Chevy is true to his latent Taoist spirit he will follow this new path of the process and learn from it and build from it. That is hardly being lost, but it is different.