Hail Mary Lessons from Hospital Room 25

Who are we going to be: trash-talkers or winners as our best selves?

MORGANTOWN, W.V. — I write to you from Room 25 on the eighth floor here of Ruby Memorial Hospital, where I spent Sunday night with my mother, Sajida, 86, after she had a scare with vertigo.

Sunday morning, the world spun all around her, turning topsy-turvy and upside down.

“I’m going to die,” she exclaimed, frightened and unclear what was happening to her.

After Tuesday night, half of our country may feel much like they are experiencing a case of post-election vertigo.

As Americans gear up for the results from one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history, there is a lesson we can carry into Election Day from my mother’s experience and a short video I showed her as she healed in Room 25.

Hail Mary Moment

The video is of a Hail Mary pass in the final seconds of the football game last week between the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears. The Washington Commanders found themselves down on the scoreboard, 15-12, desperate for one last shot.

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels scrambled and launched a Hail Mary pass to the end zone, a long, desperate play that could only be answered by a metaphorical miracle. The "Hail Mary" pass comes from a Catholic prayer of the same name, requesting strength and help. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach popularized the term after he threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Drew Pearson in the 1975 NFL playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings. Staubach told reporters that he said a Hail Mary prayer as he threw the ball. 

Meanwhile, back on the football field last week, seconds before the Hail Mary, Bears cornerback #29 Tyrique Stevenson stood with his back to the field, near the Commanders’ goal line, taunting Commanders’ fans, raising his hands in the air, oblivious to the play unfolding behind him and the players running toward the end goal.

A social media user called the image “iconic.”

As the ball arced through the air, Stevenson sprinted toward the middle of the field, late but just in time to tip the pass into the waiting hands of Washington receiver #85 Noah Brown for a 61-yard completion pass and the game-winning touchdown.

Bears fans slumped to the ground, in shock. Commanders fans jumped in the air, in celebration.

That night, at 10:10 p.m., Stevenson @DreamChaserTy10, humbled and remorseful, took to the X social media platform to apologize to Chicago fans and teammates for his lapse, acknowledging that he’d let the moment get the best of him.

“To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus ….,” he wrote. “The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen. #Beardown.”

It was a stark and human admission of the need to stay focused even as a game draws to its last seconds and to be humble afterwards in victory or defeat. Either state of being — and life itself — is impermanent and fleeting.

Stevenson is a young man, and I hope everyone will support him through this teachable moment. Wisely, Chicago Bears’ teammates, including tight end Cole Kmet and safety Kevin Byard, rallied behind Stevenson, recognizing it as a moment of growth.

This football moment reminds us that every moment matters in the public sphere.

Refusing Trash Talk

In the hours before Election Day — and in the days that follow — as political leaders and their supporters exchange barbs and taunts, we will all face a choice.

Do we want to be the person who lets focus slip, caught up in a fervor to taunt and ridicule, or do we keep our eye on the end goal — not even just the election, but our highest ideals and the best for America?

Last week, we saw comedians and political figures alike veer off course, engaging in literal “trash” talk that lowers the bar for public discourse.

Last Sunday, Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

And in response, on Wednesday, President Joe Biden dismissed supporters of Trump, saying on a call with a Latino group, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters…”

It’s human to get drawn into the fray, but we’re better when we keep our eye on the ball and aim for a higher ethos.

Winning the long game

The truth is, when both sides dip into the same lowbrow language, they’re no different from each other. In the days ahead, let’s elevate the conversation, focused not on taunting from the sidelines or even just bringing the ball into the end zone, but instead winning the long game — for America.

This is an important choice we face not only in these hours leading up to the election but in the days ahead. We have to live with the cultural and societal dynamics we manifest. No matter which side wins, the Hail Mary of last week’s football game teaches us, let’s make the dynamics positive election night and beyond.

Healthcare workers are preparing for a possible storm on election night, when people may feel as if their world is spinning and, indeed, maybe even feel that they are going to die.

Whatever side wins, our nation will survive.

And remember: we are not limited to cheering for only the tribe with which we vote.

We belong to a wider community that is America and, indeed, our world.

“The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted.”

And, from my view on the eighth floor of the hospital, where life begins and ends, this I know: we are each in a longer game than just the 2024 election.