What Role Has Sports Played in Your Life?
Today was the Super Bowl. Many people look forward to this football game. Does your family look forward to certain sporting events? Do members of your family play sports? What kind of sports has your family participated in? Or are sports not a big deal for your family?
For me it is just another game that is not any more important than any other game. Sports hasn't been a significant part of my life. It always bothered me that one team would win and the other lose. To me a good game is one where everyone involved got some exercise and had fun playing. The importance of being the best team and winning seems contrived. If one team wins by one point more, they are celebrated as being so much better than the other team. I didn't like the competitiveness in school. There was the talk of how much better our school was than the other school especially if our team won the game. Yet both schools provided an education for those who attended. So sports aren't a big deal in my life.
When I was young, there were races for the town celebration of the Fourth of July and our state's birthday. Every one turned a certain age in a certain year was asked to line up and race to see who the fastest runner was. If they had given a prize for the slowest runner, I would have always won it. As a teen our church had softball games during the summer for the girls. My parents bought me a mitt and a softball and encouraged me to play. I would throw the ball against the sides of the grainery or up in the air to practice, but I spent most of the games standing out in right field or center field hardly ever even getting to touch the ball. When teams were chosen for dodge ball or other games, I was usually the last person chosen. I wasn't handicapped or crippled, but I wasn't really good at sports. I could carry baskets full of eggs and buckets of grain. I could lift and carry and do work on the farm, but competition wasn't that much a part of me. I hated to see other people feel inferior because they were the last chosen for a team. I hate to think of winners and losers. I like things that are a win-win for everyone involved.
My family didn't spend a lot of time watching sporting events. I do remember going to watch a few rodeos. I also remember a baseball game when the ball hit the windshield on our car and broke it. I remember my mother watching a woman's roller derby on television on a Saturday afternoon while she tried to finish getting eggs ready to be delivered. There wasn't a lot on television on Saturday afternoons when I was young, but watching sports was not something we did very often. I guess we were too busy working and living life.
Record your experience with sports. Did you play certain games? Did you watch certain sports? Or were sports unimportant in your life? Did you have good experiences with sports? Or do you have bad memories from sporting events? Add to your life story by recording your feelings about sports.
