A few days ago, a friend of mine informed me that his son’s baseball team had won a crucial game, advancing the team to a final game that would decide who would be first place in their division. I was very excited for them, and thought about rooting for his son’s team. That got me into a philosophical debate within my mind about winning and losing, and the implications of winning and losing on a child.After some thought, I decided to root for each individual kid. I realized that it didn’t matter who won or lost the game. The real winning and losing comes after the game is over. I realized that winners could lose, and losers could win, depending on how each reacted to the winning or losing. What would the win mean to the winner and the loss mean to the loser? What would each do with the win or the loss? How would it affect their attitudes about themselves and each other? How would they treat each other after the game? I just hope that each child will make the best of the experience, whether his team wins or loses the game. I’m rooting for all of them.
Sincerely,
Alan
This is a poem I wrote about 8 years ago on this subject:
ReplyDeleteFragments of Love
I won the Battle of Winning and Losing
You won the War
It’s all so confusing
This matter of winning
And someone else losing
You talk about Quality
You’re picking and choosing
Compartmentalizing
The winning and losing
This dull human mind
Must Di-chot-o-mize
If we are to survive
To re-main alive
We must pick and choose!
WE MUST WIN OR LOSE!
“Hate” is a strong word
An ugly word, too
“Love” even stronger
Doesn’t Love last much longer?
Didn’t Love win the War?
WILL YOU HAND ME THE SCORECARD?
all this picking and choosing
all this winning and losing
I’ve developed a game
Called THE ENERGY GAME
Well, I can’t call it mine
It defies space and time
And I couldn’t invent it
With my dull human mind
Where no one keeps score
There’s no winning or losing
I can’t say it’s much fun
It’s kind of confusing
Here comes the Judge!
He looks just like you
He looks kind of like me
In that Light and that hue
He’s retiring, he says
For lack of a scheme
Can we develop a trophy?
“I thought there were teams!”
It would be such a win
If I had it within
To defy all that bunk
To discard all that junk
To declutter my Mind
To forget about Time
To lose all the battles
Could be such a win
To let someone else win
Would that be such a sin?
Who really wins in that case?
And who will hold the race
To the end of the losing
And end of the winning?
Because there will never be an END
As there was no BEGINNING
These FRAGMENTS OF LOVE
Sit Board-side
Waiting for your next move
Miss you lots...Love that there will never be an
ReplyDeleteend as there was no beginning!
Sending all my love to you,
Lynney