I have been an avid sports fan my whole life and still root for various players and teams. These days I am rooting for our politicians and government agencies. Maybe praying would be better?
Wow who would have thought that the situation we are facing in the sports world would mirror the situation our government is in? The parallels between our government’s issues and what is happening in the world of sport is striking.
What a mess we have gotten ourselves into, an economy in shambles and the prospect of disaster on the playing field.
The NFL and NBA are effectively closed down, and now our politicians are telling us that our government is in danger of shutting down, and we will be facing catastrophic consequences if this happens. How much worse can it get?
Our politicians are jockeying for position with the public just as the NFL and NBA owners and players are attempting to woo and convince us that they are in the right. Isn’t there some middle ground we can all agree on? Apparently not-principle appears to be taking precedent over what is best for the people.
The Tea Party and The White House won’t give in and players and owners won’t either. I thought that stuff was only for the school yard. Maybe that is where they got it from– probably not. These attitudes and the actions that stem from our politicians and sports figures are deeply rooted in our psyches.
I can understand how winning and losing in sports feels like life and death at times even though it is just entertainment. It is after all a great distraction from the real issues that affect our lives. Participation in sports on any level can bring about strong emotional responses including very competitive ones and the feeling that losing is intolerable and compromise is impossible. Sound familiar? Welcome to Washington the NFL and the NBA!
I see this scenario played out all the time in my office between parents and children who won’t give in to the detriment of both. It is reflective of a very regressive younger phase of emotional development that has not been adequately dealt with, so it gets played out in intransigent struggles in our everyday relationships.
As a child I had vicious arguments about who was the best baseball player in the league or on my block, flipped cards and played all games with a vengeance. No more. Perhaps it is just a passing phase or my stage of life, or maybe it is just my mature sensibilities although somehow I don’t think so.
As I grew up I somehow realized that life went on regardless of my athletic prowess, or who was the best baseball player, or which team won. Sure I was disappointed that I had to wait twenty plus years to see the football Giants win again, and I am still smarting from the Celtics playoff exit at the hands of the Heat, and these are but a few examples of what I have had to put up with! But somehow I survived it all.
We elect our officials and pay for our entertainment so we deserve the problems we are experiencing with them. Beyond all that they are after all just a reflection of us. And they are unable to find solutions to what appear to be very complex problems.
So when our politicians and government agencies perform poorly we all lose as they can make decisions that really affect us directly. Because what they are doing is not child’s play and the stakes are very real and high– maybe that is why when my teams lose it doesn’t’ seem to bother me as much as it used to.