Serena Williams... what shall we do with you?

Yesterday, at the US Open, the world watched as Tennis extraordinaire, Serena Williams, not only played hard, but yelled hard too. For those of you unfamiliar with this story you can find it right here on youtube, or here on ESPN.

This little stunt told the public several things, one- I can't handle my emotions when I'm in potentially steamy situations, two- I need to understand the power of my passion before I handle the situation.

I am a firm believer in leaving it all on the field, the court, or whatever, but there is a line that has to be drawn at the point where my feelings begin to overpower me. I liken this situation to watching people who are dog walking, especially when the dogs are HUGE! Often times you wonder who is walking whom, the dog walking the person, or the person walking the dog. Although the dog may be very powerful, proper discipline can bring him inline and allow for his master to walk his dog-not the other way around. I feel these scenarios are very similar. If you are as passionate as Serena Williams or Lagarrette Blout (Oregon's now suspended former running back) about what you are playing for, I can understand fully that emotions will fly high; I wholly expect that to happen, but it's understanding the power and magnitude of your emotions that will humble you and keep you from having a display of ill-willed passion, which could lose you the game- Williams- or get you suspended for the season-Blout.
Now, both of these two athletes have come back and apologized accordingly for the misconduct they showed on the court and the field, but they have lost the respect of hundreds, or in Williams case, even thousands of fans, solely because of the response in the moment. This is something which occurs multiple times a week between peers and friends. You could be in physical Education at school in the third grade and go and punch a kid or (in the case of my girlfriend's summer camp) kick a kid in the nuts.

This is one of those binaries which we are taught from a younger age; that we should be as passionate about whatever and do whatever it takes to ensure that passion is seen through and through. We don't learn how to understand our emotions in a more sub-grouped fashion. We believe that if we're not gung-ho about everything we do to the point we're willing to fight for it, than we're not passionate, not really. This is where we are wrong. What if we flipped the script and change our societal position and said at the point where we need to fight about something, our passion, our emotions, our excitement is getting the best of us and we should probably step back and reassess. What if we looked at our emotions and instead of being completely distraught or crazy about something we're passionate about, what if we had a gray area, where we could be extremely passionate, but realize we need to stay grounded and not blow up if something doesn't go our way? Opting out of the binary of being all or nothing, might actually save more than just your career, it might actually save your life one day.

But the question lies in the hands of each person; are you a binary, only on or off, black or white; or are you better than that- do you have built-in gray? I challenge you to reassess.