If you still have a copy of last week’s Cabinet in your home, take another look at our sports pages, in particular Joe Marchilena’s soccer photos.

They are, we think, evocotive and give a clear idea of the glories of a New Hampshire autumn made a bit more glorious through the joy of high school sports.

Joe’s photos last week were taken at Souhegan High School in Amherst where the Saber girls’ soccer team took on
Hollis-Brookline, but autumnal beauty can be found at other local playing fields thanks to the backdrop of trees that surround, or at least dot, the landscape. Autumn in New Hampshire is special.

So are high school sports, although we often think that too much attention can be paid to them. Still, we understand why: One can root for a soccer or football team. It’s hard to root for more books in the school library.

High school sports can build confidence in kids and certainly a sense of sportsmanship and comaraderie and these are important elements in the development of teenagers and younger kids, too. The vistas that fans can see when they attend games remind us of the intrinsic beauty that is all around us, something that is important to the psychic well-being of all of us.

That’s one of the reasons we urge our readers to go to some local high school games, whether they have children playing in them or not. The games can be entertaining, of course, but just being outside, just viewing the beauty of nature one can see from the sidelines, is healthy. Fresh air, sunshine … it’s all good.

So … go.