"The Ideal"

“The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real.  It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.”

-       Victor Hugo – French Author and Poet

Last Friday night as I sat in the upper deck of Busch Stadium watching a Cardinal baseball game, I experienced "the Ideal.”  The Cardinals are beloved by their fans and many believe the Cardinals are the best team in baseball.   It is not just because of the Cardinals' winning records and trips to the playoffs and the World Series, but because in our minds, they represent what is the best of baseball, "the Ideal."  For a few hours at a Cardinal game we recognize the ideals of God, county, a perfect field of emerald green grass, scoreboards lit up in the night, inspirational music, and the perseverance and sportsmanship of the players.

As I sat in the upper deck of the stadium that night, I listened to a children's choir sing "God Bless America" followed by the National Anthem.  Each fan received a Whitey Garden gnome and during the break in one inning, a fan guessed the top three vegetables planted in a garden.  In the last inning, thunderous music played as our closing pitcher warmed up with lights flashing all over the stadium symbolizing "lights out" for the opposing team.   It was surreal and real at the same time -  "the Ideal."

Plato, the Greek philosopher wrote that what we experience with our senses on Earth, is merely a shadow of the real or 'Ideal."  Some may believe I am an idealist and that my visions are impossible, but I am reminded that there are other idealists who have experienced the real and the surreal and together, captured "the Ideal" for the rest of us in a beautiful night at a baseball game.