It is often said that sports imitate life. The College of Charleston (Charleston, South Carolina) men’s basketball team had a good season last year. Unlike their professional counterparts, however, college students graduate, and the Cougars lost 3 highly productive players from last year’s team. With an above-average recruiting class, this season’s team completed its preconference schedule, winning 10 games and losing only 3. Fans expected another outstanding season. Then came an inexplicable loss—the loss of a sterling freshman to injury—and another unexpected defeat. How could they possibly recover? The basketball coach described his preparation for game 17 as a “new beginning.” Fittingly, he started some new players and gave others newfound court time. Would the new combinations work? Last fall, I worked with Mr A, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran who had suffered a severe abdominal insult and nearly died. By the strength of his will, Mr A summoned the motivation to rehabilitate himself and to reach the point of discharge from a nursing home unit. He had pushed himself to achieve many small gains, which had added up to a reclaimed ability to walk and the hope that he could take care of himself. Leaving the nursing home unit, however, Mr A could not know what lay ahead—only that he had earned a second chance at life, beginning at age 61 years. As happened with the basketball team, the road for Mr A had several unanticipated turns and unplanned-for defeats. It seemed prudent to continue our work together, as Mr A sought to negotiate the world he found outside the confines of a nursing home. We described his task at discharge as a new beginning.