The Warm Take Introduces: The Bright Side
If you’ve ever stumbled upon The Warm Take About page, you would find that the inspiration behind the creation of this site came from my son’s 2019 New Year’s resolution of “Make up anything you want to be”. He was a three-year-old at the time and – I don’t want to put words in his mouth – didn’t intend for that to be actual career advice for his father. Nevertheless, I took that adorable little nugget of hope and optimism and turned it into this site, which serves as a creative outlet for my Detroit/Michigan sports knowledge, a forum to workshop a limitless supply of lame jokes, and a place to blow off some steam (teams lose a lot ’round these parts).
Fast-forward to 2020, and I have once again decided to put a New Year’s resolution into practice. Only this time, I am drawing inspiration from good old Jonny Blue-Skies (yours truly). We have all of our family resolutions up on a corkboard to serve as a reminder throughout the year. How quickly I’d forgotten that one of my own was to “speak more positively”. This gave me a crazy, wacky, never before attempted idea…
What if, just as a change of pace, I very deliberately traded in my realism for optimism? Swapped doubt for confidence? Dealt bitterness for hope? Perhaps I could speak some success into existence in the midst of a very dark and trying time in Detroit sports, where unmet expectations and unfulfilled promises rule the day. Where the transaction is more interesting than the action. Where the grind is long, hard, and depressing.
This gives birth to a new series I will be calling “The Bright Side”. Consider it The Warm Take’s umbrella to shelter us from the storm the sports gods have rained down upon us in recent years. I will still be delivering the normal style of commentary you have come to expect on this site, as this is where my true personality and analytical mind exists. But who couldn’t use a little more sunshine and rainbows with their sports coverage from time to time?
This exercise will serve multiple functions. If my cold, sarcastic, and matter-of-fact (though undeniably hilarious) way of delivering my opinions ain’t your cup-a-tea, perhaps this is something you might be interested in.
[NSFW]
I’m also hoping this practice will awaken a lighter, more enthusiastic view of the present and future of local sports for me as well. In my brain, negativity is easy. Hope and optimism take practice.
To be clear: No lies will be told in “The Bright Side” pieces. Instead, criticisms may be omitted. Flaws overlooked. Failures glossed-over. But the positive spins will be based on real, authentic opinions, just ratcheted up a notch in an attempt to create some good juju.
After all, the creation of The Warm Take did coincide with the worst era in the history of professional sports in any city in recorded memory. Coincidence, I think not.
I helped make this mess, now it’s time to clean it up. “The Bright Side” is coming to a team near you. You may want to put on your Tac Glasses!
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