There is a season, and it is here

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)

A circle is a powerful thing. Like any shape, a circle ends exactly where it starts, but only with a circle is that starting point irrelevant. Once it has been drawn, there is no way to tell its point of origin. The world runs on circles. The most fundamental unit of life, the atom, at its most fundamental two-dimensional representation, is a circle with another circle around it. The planet we live on is a circle of circles, travelling in a circle around a ball of light and heat, without any of which we probably wouldn't exist. Basketball, more than any other major sport, is a game of circles. At its most fundamental core, this sport we love is about the simple task of placing a three dimensional circle through a slightly larger two dimensional circle.

Time also operates in circles, in cycles. Days, weeks, months, years - cycles within cycles within cycles. It is this phenomenon which is the subject tackled in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and further immortalized (and simplified) in song by The Byrds.

As we stand at the precipice of a new season of basketball as fans of the Los Angeles Lakers, this is the lesson we must learn, the knowledge we must gird our hearts with. There is a season for everything, and though we can't know for sure, this appears to be the "wrong" kind of season, in many, many ways. The Lakers look more ready to die than to be born, more likely to weep than to laugh, more likely to mourn than to dance. This is a season in which the Lakers are planting seeds for the future, not reaping the harvests of their past, where they are breaking things down so they can later build things up. We can only hope, given the choice, they will choose to heal, because the only thing they can kill is themselves.

This is the natural cycle of things, and it is our turn to suffer through it. The Lakers have reaped much, killed much, laughed much, built much, danced much, gained much. They have enjoyed far, far more up cycles than down. The cycle that is Lakers basketball is nowhere near even it its distribution of joy and suffering, and it probably (hopefully) never will be. But, if it is our time to die, to break down, to mourn, then it is our time, and we should accept that fate with dignity and pride in our team's past accomplishments.

And hope. The best part of being in the down part of the cycle is in the knowledge of what comes next. The Los Angeles Lakers don't appear to be very good this season, but we will love them, cherish them, savor them just the same. We will do so for as long as it takes for the reckoning of this team to be complete, and when the fates decide it is our turn to experience the joys of success once more, we will know that the cycle has been worth it. There is a season for everything. No matter what purpose this season is for, we will be here for it.

There is a season, and it is here.