I have had a very strange, trying and unexpectedly emotional week at school. There are such a myriad of stories, I will have to try and summarize later. In the meantime; this.
In respect for your trying and unexpectedly emotional week, I will refrain from the rant that the linked story inspired in me.
Thanks to the post about the USA-Mexico match and some surfing on the subject afterwards, I've had a realization about sports: I dont actually hate sports at all, it is fandom that i hate, and while sports fandom strikes me as the worst variety, I hate music fandom and tv show fandom and all the other varieties of fandom too.
Anyway, I hope you get some time to work out the kinks this weekend. Illegitimi non carborundum
No, no. DOn't hold back on my account. I didn't mean emotional in the sense of fragile. I just meant that in the midst of bad stuff there are some really good kids and you feel proud of the change you see in them.
I figure your complaint with the story will be about the chickenshit rule that didn't allow the kid in the game. Yes. But. In the situation I am in now, seeing kids who are able to empathize with other people and think about acting selflessly is impressive to me. I hope I can help kids reach that, but it doesn't look that way right now.
Actually, my criticism was about a kid who is trying to have a normal day and play a game and having lots of attention brought to him so that some folks can make the sort of big cheese gesture that is about showing off their compassion, also about the coach who tells the story in such a way as to make sure that it is clear to everyone that the idea to ditch the free throw was his, not one of his players', and yeah, also the idea that there would need to be any sort of discussion about overlooking the rule under these very special circumstances in a HIGH SCHOOL sporting event, the least consequential or important event that communities offer, contributing even less than the obligatory senior production of Okalahoma! and the obligatory stoned leap from tabcat bridge that was part of my own graduation right of passage. Even the stoned and geeky and dumb etc who were my peers in high school were capable of much more profound gestures of sympathy that were not public and self-serving and insensitive to the person grieving in the way that the jock gesture is. Maybe the kid wanted or at least was okay with the public attention to his mourning, I don't know. And maybe he was even cool with press coverage of the gesture so that everyone could have their name in the paper, but i have to say that if I was that kid, I would have preferred that it not be a big deal and that my teamates treat me well and give some support without making such a big deal of it that i was stuck not just having to deal with my mom dying and everyone acting weird toward me at the same time, but also have to show my public appreciation for being allowed to go play a game of basketball. thats all I'm saying.
I hear what you are saying, David, in the sense that I can hear you saying it and I know that is how you feel about sports. But I think the gulf in our feelings on the subject is a little broad for me to say that I fully understand it. One reason I enjoy participating in sports is because it feels very much like family to me, and I know that if I was that kid and my mom died, I would want to be with my team as well. Also, I respect the gesture of a kid who has spent hundreds of hours making sure he gets free-throws right missing them on purpose because there is nothing else he can really do for another guy his age who is experiencing something rotten. And if the coaches sound ham-handed, it is probably because they are coaches. Anyway, I am glad that you are around to remind me of the angles that I didn't think of, but I still think i is a touching story.
4 comments:
In respect for your trying and unexpectedly emotional week, I will refrain from the rant that the linked story inspired in me.
Thanks to the post about the USA-Mexico match and some surfing on the subject afterwards, I've had a realization about sports: I dont actually hate sports at all, it is fandom that i hate, and while sports fandom strikes me as the worst variety, I hate music fandom and tv show fandom and all the other varieties of fandom too.
Anyway, I hope you get some time to work out the kinks this weekend. Illegitimi non carborundum
No, no. DOn't hold back on my account. I didn't mean emotional in the sense of fragile. I just meant that in the midst of bad stuff there are some really good kids and you feel proud of the change you see in them.
I figure your complaint with the story will be about the chickenshit rule that didn't allow the kid in the game. Yes. But. In the situation I am in now, seeing kids who are able to empathize with other people and think about acting selflessly is impressive to me. I hope I can help kids reach that, but it doesn't look that way right now.
Actually, my criticism was about a kid who is trying to have a normal day and play a game and having lots of attention brought to him so that some folks can make the sort of big cheese gesture that is about showing off their compassion, also about the coach who tells the story in such a way as to make sure that it is clear to everyone that the idea to ditch the free throw was his, not one of his players', and yeah, also the idea that there would need to be any sort of discussion about overlooking the rule under these very special circumstances in a HIGH SCHOOL sporting event, the least consequential or important event that communities offer, contributing even less than the obligatory senior production of Okalahoma! and the obligatory stoned leap from tabcat bridge that was part of my own graduation right of passage. Even the stoned and geeky and dumb etc who were my peers in high school were capable of much more profound gestures of sympathy that were not public and self-serving and insensitive to the person grieving in the way that the jock gesture is. Maybe the kid wanted or at least was okay with the public attention to his mourning, I don't know. And maybe he was even cool with press coverage of the gesture so that everyone could have their name in the paper, but i have to say that if I was that kid, I would have preferred that it not be a big deal and that my teamates treat me well and give some support without making such a big deal of it that i was stuck not just having to deal with my mom dying and everyone acting weird toward me at the same time, but also have to show my public appreciation for being allowed to go play a game of basketball. thats all I'm saying.
I hear what you are saying, David, in the sense that I can hear you saying it and I know that is how you feel about sports. But I think the gulf in our feelings on the subject is a little broad for me to say that I fully understand it. One reason I enjoy participating in sports is because it feels very much like family to me, and I know that if I was that kid and my mom died, I would want to be with my team as well. Also, I respect the gesture of a kid who has spent hundreds of hours making sure he gets free-throws right missing them on purpose because there is nothing else he can really do for another guy his age who is experiencing something rotten. And if the coaches sound ham-handed, it is probably because they are coaches.
Anyway, I am glad that you are around to remind me of the angles that I didn't think of, but I still think i is a touching story.
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