sports
i think in a lot of ways sports can represent certain metaphors for life, teach us things about life that we can’t learn on youtube. like losing a hard fought game teaches you about humility and being a gracious loser. winning a game easily against a lesser opponent teaches you to feed on those lower in the food chain. losing by TKO in a boxing match teaches you how to get the snot kicked out of you. but also winning by cheating instills the sense of guilt that teaches you not to cheat. and working together to achieve a common goal teaches you valuable lessons such as teamwork, sportsmanship, and arrogance. Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly wrote an article opining that the numerous former athletes onboard United flight93 that was hijacked on September 11th and went down in PA failed to reach its target because these athletes used their experience to work together in a stressful situation. And he made some good points; sports really does teach us about life.
I remember this one time in basketball camp where my pseudofriend, let’s call him “Ken”, was on this really terrible team which lost practically every game it played. nonetheless, he remained positive and hopeful, talking optimistically about the improvement of his teammates. and he used to joke that his team was losing so many games early in the season to give the other teams a false sense of confidence. and i remember thinking about how much of an ass “Ken” was becoming. i have only seen “Ken” once since basketball camp ended and i made it a point to give him the cold shoulder.
My friend Joey Bartozzi had the winning hit in the last at-bat in one of our little league games. It brought the team together to see our light-hitting but beloved teammate come through in such an unlikely situation in a season full of losses. We went out for pizza that night and celebrated a season redeemed. But then this other kid, I can’t remember his name but he had glasses and no one liked him, tried to steal the skateboard of one of the employees of the pizzeria and swore at him and we all remembered what a terrible season we had had.
I think sports is a teacher of life in the same way that life can be a teacher of life. People can encounter new situations, inspire resolve and courage, and learn to become the leaders of tomorrow. If people have learned anything from Michael Jordan, it’s that having a unique ability and parlaying these skills to become the most recognizable athlete in the history of sports will afford you millions of dollars, a gigantic house with a garage full of Ferraris, but, more importantly, that don’t forget to milk a movie out of it.
