Ted Lasso Returns

Can this loveable show help us find our heart again?

I’m overjoyed with the return of Ted Lasso! Just dipping into the first episode made my day!

But why? Why does this return feel so good to me?

Season One of Ted Lasso landed on small screens via AppleTV in late summer 2020, on the heels of the most turbulent season of my life so far. Likely yours too. It took me a few months to watch it… I don’t watch much TV, but I did watch this. And when I did, it was just as wonderful as everyone said it was. Funny. Heartfelt. Authentic. I loved the characters from the start, and their humanity shone through – for good and ill. In short, it was a balm to my heart… not just to my heart, but to the hearts of people all around me.

Ted Lasso was truly a show for the times. I know the makers didn’t know that when they were creating it, they were just creating characters and stories they loved, but it landed in post-pandemic societies in need of just these kinds of messages. You belong. You matter. Love carries us through hard times. The struggle to be ourselves is real, and worthwhile. Family can take many forms. We help, and hold, each other. Love comes in all forms, and all forms are worthy. It’s my job to help others, and to be open to receiving support in return.

So many messages came out of Ted Lasso, and our society here in Canada needed to hear them as they landed. Because, you see, we never collectively repaired after COVID ravaged our communities. After the fear, the deaths, the lockdowns, the uncertainty, the anger, the isolation… our societies just picked up where we left off (or where we thought we left off) and moved on as if the pandemic never happened.

 And yet, our sense of belonging was… broken. We’d forgotten how to connect with one another. We’d forgotten how to support and trust one another. And now, our society chomps on itself… I see it every day. In our driving and our focus on “me first”, cutting one another off on the highway and not letting each other in when zippering is required. More often than not, we’re in too much of a rush to slow down a sec and hold the door for one another. From what I see, we have forgotten the wee niceties that make-up the social lubricant of our culture. We focus on making things look good rather than ensuring quality first, packaging after. This is what I see around me, even when I’m looking for the small acts of kindness that make my day. They can be hard to find.

You see, and we all know this, after conflict, disagreements, trauma or a rupture, we have to repair and recover… both ourselves and our relationships. Societies need that too. And in moving on without doing that necessary work of repair, we are less humane than we were when we began. Social media and the dislocation of the internet have created a world of compartments rather than a united whole. And we need to fix that somehow. It’s just too hard to live life in perpetual competition with each other.

So, what can we do? What can I do?

Well, I can focus on the good I do see around me, and there IS good there. I can wave at other drivers as I let them into traffic, or wave “thank you” when they do the same for me. I can take the time to see the human being that is my cashier at the grocery store, or see the person beside me on public transit, and maybe even muster the courage to say hello and start a conversation. I can focus on the little things that make someone else’s day, and don’t slow mine down a bit. I can also look for things I can do in my community – volunteer somehow, or if funds allow, make a donation to a local group that is doing good work but could make use of a few dollars from me.

Better still, I can get off my phone and connect to the world, “touch grass” as the kids say these days. Join a community event or a fitness class so I meet other people who live in my community. Build social connection. And I can pay attention to my social media diet – am I reading things that support my life or things that feed my fear? I can notice where my thoughts meander to when I let them go, and if it’s ruminating that’s making my anxiety rise, I can shift gears to focus on something more uplifting.

And I can curate good shows and books for me to watch and read. Shows like Ted Lasso, season four… the next chapter for this unlikely but oh so likeable soccer coach of the Richmond Lady Greyhounds, and onboard some of the lessons that will likely still be there.  Things like: You belong. You matter. Love carries us through hard times. The struggle to be ourselves is real, and worthwhile. Family can take many forms. We help, and hold, each other. Love comes in all forms, and all forms are worthy. It’s my job to help others, and to be open to receiving support in return.

Awareness. Intention. These matter in our topsy-turvy world.

I get nothing but gratitude from posting this shot... it's good watching. I hope you enjoy it too. Photo credit: T. Chapman