Saturday, February 16, 2008
Why Sports Are Important
**I found this recap of my thoughts on sports after the fires that swept through Southern California in October of last year. Hopefully it still rings true today...**
Given what's happened in our town, in our county, and even throughout our state this week, I'm sure we've all heard, and many of us have said, the phrase, "It reminds us of what's really important."
For starters, I agree wholeheartedly. I have never been through anything remotely like the wildfires, the mandatory evacuations, and the smoky aftermath of this week. I grew up in Western New York, where the most we had to worry about was a lot of snow, and not to downplay the power of a lake-effect blizzard, but there's just something deeply, inherently frightening about fire. It moves quickly, it moves erratically, and it consumes everything in its path. And this week, it was on our doorsteps.
That's why it was such a shock to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday to the smell of smoke, the wind howling outside my front door, and a county sheriff careening up the driveway to alert us that we needed to evacuate immediately. I admit it, I almost lost it. I stood outside for a good 30 seconds, just looking around and trying to process the movie-like scene in front of me. Thank goodness for my neighbors, who had been through this before, and assured me that everything would be alright. They calmly explained that we weren't in any imminent danger, but that I still needed to get some things together to be ready to leave.
In the five minutes I had to put together what I considered to be my irreplaceable belongings, I had to make some hurried decisions. Do I take my guitar? Obviously, yes. Do I take my Christmas tree, which is still up from last year? Obviously, no, since I got it at Target for like $15. Do I take my movie collection, my suits (which belonged to my dad), or my book collection? Those were not so obvious.
In the end, I loaded up what I thought was important: a few changes of clothing, my bedding, some extra towels and blankets, my guitar, my Bible, a painting done for me by a dear friend, my portfolio of articles I wrote for the newspaper back in New York, and my athletic equipment.
At that point, I realized something that I have since thought about further, and continue to find interesting -- that is, the fact that I saw fit to include sports equipment in the company of things I considered important enough to save from the oncoming fire.
Now, I don't consider myself anything but an amateur when it comes to athletics; I certainly enjoy playing sports and look for any excuse to do so. But what I have is all replaceable, from my soccer cleats, to my old baseball glove, to the football I just bought a few weeks ago to replace the one I left back in New York. None of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, right?
Well, maybe it does. I'm sure we all heard the pros and cons of the Chargers playing at home against the Texans on Sunday -- some said it was just what the people here needed, others said it was insensitive to presume that a football game was important enough to go on, even in the face of debilitating tragedy.
Yet it was played, and played quite well from a San Diegan's perspective. The message sent by the Chargers and the NFL was that yes, San Diego County (and all of California) has been through a terrible nightmare of a week, but in the end, if we can all come together for something as "insignificant" as a football game, we can certainly come together to help our neighbors and friends get through the process of rebuilding their lives.
Of course, sporting events in and of themselves are not to be taken as life and death situations; one team wins, another loses, we all are entertained and then we move on. But if Simon and Garfunkel are correct that each of us is an island, then sports provide an easily-accessible bridge to connect even the most isolated person. There have been so many times in my relatively young life when I've struggled to carry on polite conversation with a stranger -- until we realize that we're both sports fans, and then it's not too long before other people begin to wonder if we've known each other since grade school.
And sports become so much more important for those of us who have experienced what it means to be a part of a team. It's common to hear about the special bond players develop with their teammates, especially in the formative years between elementary school and college. Once you've been a part of a true team, you know that it's infinitely more than that -- those other guys (and/or girls) are like another family.
Possibly the most important role of sports, however, is that they give us a sense of normalcy that is impossible to replace. It happened for Virginia Tech after the campus was decimated by an armed attacker, it happened in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York City six years ago, it happened in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1989. Tragedy is a reality in our world, and though there is a time to pause and reflect, there is also a need to pick up what's left and keep going. Sports have played a pivotal role in the healing of our nation and our world, and I doubt that anything else could have done such a marvelous job.
So when the CIF canceled sports events and practices last week, I'm sure our student-athletes missed their teammates and the competition they love. And now that the danger has all but passed, I'm sure they are ready to get back to playing.
When they do, I hope you're there to see it.
Because no matter who you're rooting for, it's going to remind us all of what's really important.
Given what's happened in our town, in our county, and even throughout our state this week, I'm sure we've all heard, and many of us have said, the phrase, "It reminds us of what's really important."
For starters, I agree wholeheartedly. I have never been through anything remotely like the wildfires, the mandatory evacuations, and the smoky aftermath of this week. I grew up in Western New York, where the most we had to worry about was a lot of snow, and not to downplay the power of a lake-effect blizzard, but there's just something deeply, inherently frightening about fire. It moves quickly, it moves erratically, and it consumes everything in its path. And this week, it was on our doorsteps.
That's why it was such a shock to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday to the smell of smoke, the wind howling outside my front door, and a county sheriff careening up the driveway to alert us that we needed to evacuate immediately. I admit it, I almost lost it. I stood outside for a good 30 seconds, just looking around and trying to process the movie-like scene in front of me. Thank goodness for my neighbors, who had been through this before, and assured me that everything would be alright. They calmly explained that we weren't in any imminent danger, but that I still needed to get some things together to be ready to leave.
In the five minutes I had to put together what I considered to be my irreplaceable belongings, I had to make some hurried decisions. Do I take my guitar? Obviously, yes. Do I take my Christmas tree, which is still up from last year? Obviously, no, since I got it at Target for like $15. Do I take my movie collection, my suits (which belonged to my dad), or my book collection? Those were not so obvious.
In the end, I loaded up what I thought was important: a few changes of clothing, my bedding, some extra towels and blankets, my guitar, my Bible, a painting done for me by a dear friend, my portfolio of articles I wrote for the newspaper back in New York, and my athletic equipment.
At that point, I realized something that I have since thought about further, and continue to find interesting -- that is, the fact that I saw fit to include sports equipment in the company of things I considered important enough to save from the oncoming fire.
Now, I don't consider myself anything but an amateur when it comes to athletics; I certainly enjoy playing sports and look for any excuse to do so. But what I have is all replaceable, from my soccer cleats, to my old baseball glove, to the football I just bought a few weeks ago to replace the one I left back in New York. None of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, right?
Well, maybe it does. I'm sure we all heard the pros and cons of the Chargers playing at home against the Texans on Sunday -- some said it was just what the people here needed, others said it was insensitive to presume that a football game was important enough to go on, even in the face of debilitating tragedy.
Yet it was played, and played quite well from a San Diegan's perspective. The message sent by the Chargers and the NFL was that yes, San Diego County (and all of California) has been through a terrible nightmare of a week, but in the end, if we can all come together for something as "insignificant" as a football game, we can certainly come together to help our neighbors and friends get through the process of rebuilding their lives.
Of course, sporting events in and of themselves are not to be taken as life and death situations; one team wins, another loses, we all are entertained and then we move on. But if Simon and Garfunkel are correct that each of us is an island, then sports provide an easily-accessible bridge to connect even the most isolated person. There have been so many times in my relatively young life when I've struggled to carry on polite conversation with a stranger -- until we realize that we're both sports fans, and then it's not too long before other people begin to wonder if we've known each other since grade school.
And sports become so much more important for those of us who have experienced what it means to be a part of a team. It's common to hear about the special bond players develop with their teammates, especially in the formative years between elementary school and college. Once you've been a part of a true team, you know that it's infinitely more than that -- those other guys (and/or girls) are like another family.
Possibly the most important role of sports, however, is that they give us a sense of normalcy that is impossible to replace. It happened for Virginia Tech after the campus was decimated by an armed attacker, it happened in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York City six years ago, it happened in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1989. Tragedy is a reality in our world, and though there is a time to pause and reflect, there is also a need to pick up what's left and keep going. Sports have played a pivotal role in the healing of our nation and our world, and I doubt that anything else could have done such a marvelous job.
So when the CIF canceled sports events and practices last week, I'm sure our student-athletes missed their teammates and the competition they love. And now that the danger has all but passed, I'm sure they are ready to get back to playing.
When they do, I hope you're there to see it.
Because no matter who you're rooting for, it's going to remind us all of what's really important.
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