The tail end of a story about football was on the radio when I climbed in the car the other day. What I caught was that teams who don't make it to the playoffs have a tendency to dump their coach and get a new one. The speaker said that they sometimes make the decision based on getting rid of the loser rather than actually paying attention to the qualities of the new one. He went on to say that a team that does poorly one season, say 2-14, will do better the next year based simply on statistics. It may have nothing to do with management.

I saw an infographic once about who is the highest paid person in every state and was alarmed to see how often it is an athletic coach. I wondered how that could actually be the apex of our values as a society. But alas I do not run the zoo and have no pull when it comes to monetary compensation for altruism. 

When marriages wobble, it can be easy to blame our partner. The notion of bailing on this spouse in favor of another, any other, can seem tempting. High profile relationships in the movie industry seem vulnerable to this kind of thinking. 

Yet the idea of Buy Low, Sell High comes into play here. Investing our energy in a marriage that is scraping bottom can be a smart move. Some of the most tender moments in my life have been when someone stuck by me when I was less than valuable... sick, unpopular, unemployed, angry.

Once I was in bed for the third day in a row, weak and exhausted. My little kids made me a tray of their favorite foods, and wrote a card covered in hearts and rainbows. 

I pray that I am worthy of their investment.