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Is this nothing but small talk? When I was a younger man, I despised small talk, thinking only serious conversation to be worth the air we breathe. Anything less was bad stewardship of my vocal cords. I've come to realize that deep conversations have rhythm and depth only when preceded by lots of small talk. Small talk is like lay-ups before a basketball game—routine, mundane, predictable, but absolutely necessary to stretch tight muscles and get one's timing down, so that when the real game begins you do not pull a muscle or lose the grace of your jump shot.

And this is the final madness. That a bracket guessing game about a bunch of athletes trying to toss a leather ball through a metal hoop, players we don't know from schools we hardly care about playing in arenas we've never visited, all striving for an ephemeral title of only a fleeting glory, that this ultimately meaningless and arbitrary game, can become a means of grace, a means of small talk, by which I ever so gradually stretch more deeply into relationships, find my relational timing with Jennifer and Collin and Mark and others—why its madness—"an incipient madness, and ready to grow, spread and consume, when the occasion [March!] comes."

Mark Galli is managing editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Galli's previous Play Ball columns include

Spectating as a Spiritual Discipline | For those who have eyes to watch, let them watch something more than highlight films. (Mar. 11, 2005)

The Grace of Sports | If Christ can't be found in sports, he can't be found the modern world. (March 4, 2005)

Baseball Isn't Entertainment | The sooner we stop thinking sports are about the spectators, the more enjoyable the games will be. (Feb. 25, 2005)

Rooting for T.O. | Why Terrell Owens irritates most of us most of the time. (Feb. 11, 2005)

Freedom Between the Goal Posts | Sports is much more important than our culture lets on (Feb. 4, 2005)

Salt and Light in the Arena | It's going to take more than a few good Christians to clean up sports. (Feb. 18, 2005)

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March (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49