Thursday, February 02, 2006
Just How Super?
I hate sports. Not just dislike. At the last Cub's game I attended, I actually just wanted to get out of the stadium. I was once a fan (although I was never able to spit out miles of obscure trivia or statistics), but now I think that no matter who wins, we're all losers.
What's wrong with America's pastime? I once read an article, I believe in the Chicago Jewish News, about the historical criteria of Harvard University's admissions committee. From its founding, Harvard placed a premium on leadership attributes. Having gone through the whole college applications process once myself, I knew what this meant - clubs joined, student council positions held, work on newspaper, etc. It wasn't until the mid 20th century though that Harvard actually changed its direction, and started prioritizing students with superior intellectual abilities.
What? You didn't need a brain to get into Harvard? You could be a famous leader without a brain? I had always seen people like Albert Einstein as a hero; I wasn't aware that the world of the WASP had an entirely different notion until reading this article. (Yes, now I understand George Bush.)
But this is the same world that deifies sports. It is the leadership skills demonstrated in team sports that embody this leadership-framed ideal. But it is this utterly uncreative energy that turns me off to the world of sports. A home run in the bottom of the ninth? A last second touchdown? Are more people eating in Nigeria? Have any more kids learned to read? Why should I be impressed?
Sports is a fantasy world, a place for people to display their real talents - without accomplishing anything. To change the world is a proposition overwhelmingly filled with failure, so instead our culture runs to the stadium to see the microcosm of good vs. evil played out on grass. This simplified world is much easier to grasp, much easier to feel a winner.
But everyone is a loser. A world which places an athlete or rock star over a scientist is one without forward momentum.
This is my objection to frum people, whether they consider themselves modern or Yeshivish, whose lives revolve around sport schedules, tv shows, or People magazine. It's not assur, true. But the celebrities that are celebrated in that world aren't the models of growth that is central to every Jew's purpose. Why should we try and fill our day with empty victories and vain laughter when we have such a deep well of creative purpose to draw from?
I'm not saying that the only way to be frum is to learn torah all day. But to be frum means to submit to an ideal of growing closer to Gd every day. That inspiration can come from many sources, Jewish and non-Jewish. Are you finishing your prime-time TV with a better understanding of your spiritual connection to bring with you to davening or do you finish your davening to get back to your prime time TV? Wiling your time away with frivolous entertainment is the ultimate non-frum thing to do. You can be mekadesh (sanctify) Gd in many ways, including music and movies, but only if that is your goal - don't poison your mind deifying celebrity "accomplishments" instead of building your own.
Are you escaping or approaching?
What's wrong with America's pastime? I once read an article, I believe in the Chicago Jewish News, about the historical criteria of Harvard University's admissions committee. From its founding, Harvard placed a premium on leadership attributes. Having gone through the whole college applications process once myself, I knew what this meant - clubs joined, student council positions held, work on newspaper, etc. It wasn't until the mid 20th century though that Harvard actually changed its direction, and started prioritizing students with superior intellectual abilities.
What? You didn't need a brain to get into Harvard? You could be a famous leader without a brain? I had always seen people like Albert Einstein as a hero; I wasn't aware that the world of the WASP had an entirely different notion until reading this article. (Yes, now I understand George Bush.)
But this is the same world that deifies sports. It is the leadership skills demonstrated in team sports that embody this leadership-framed ideal. But it is this utterly uncreative energy that turns me off to the world of sports. A home run in the bottom of the ninth? A last second touchdown? Are more people eating in Nigeria? Have any more kids learned to read? Why should I be impressed?
Sports is a fantasy world, a place for people to display their real talents - without accomplishing anything. To change the world is a proposition overwhelmingly filled with failure, so instead our culture runs to the stadium to see the microcosm of good vs. evil played out on grass. This simplified world is much easier to grasp, much easier to feel a winner.
But everyone is a loser. A world which places an athlete or rock star over a scientist is one without forward momentum.
This is my objection to frum people, whether they consider themselves modern or Yeshivish, whose lives revolve around sport schedules, tv shows, or People magazine. It's not assur, true. But the celebrities that are celebrated in that world aren't the models of growth that is central to every Jew's purpose. Why should we try and fill our day with empty victories and vain laughter when we have such a deep well of creative purpose to draw from?
I'm not saying that the only way to be frum is to learn torah all day. But to be frum means to submit to an ideal of growing closer to Gd every day. That inspiration can come from many sources, Jewish and non-Jewish. Are you finishing your prime-time TV with a better understanding of your spiritual connection to bring with you to davening or do you finish your davening to get back to your prime time TV? Wiling your time away with frivolous entertainment is the ultimate non-frum thing to do. You can be mekadesh (sanctify) Gd in many ways, including music and movies, but only if that is your goal - don't poison your mind deifying celebrity "accomplishments" instead of building your own.
Are you escaping or approaching?
# posted by Josh : Thursday, February 02, 2006
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Very interesting J. I am a big football fan and I can't wait until the Super Bowl this Sunday (true my team is in it...but whatever). But this stems from just a long history with the sport. As a kid, I didn't admire football at all; but in junior high, I was good enough to join the High School marching band, and that meant going to each and every football game. At first I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I started to get it. Then (when I was a freshman) some of my classmates would be on the field. Then when I was a junior and senior, my school won the Pennsylvania State Championships. Along with the football players, we would parade with them through the streets, travel with them across the state, be featured in the paper. It was tons of fun.
In college, our football team wasn't nearly as successful, but insanely popular. Friends and I would make a day-long event of walking to the stadium, freezing in the bleachers, singing "Country Roads" (that's right, the John Denver song!) with 58,000 other people. Afterward we would all hit the town and share pitchers of beer (classy huh?).
While I am far past the tailgating, pom-poms, and beer imbibing that came along with my football spectatorship of years ago (well not that long ago!), here in Florida, I have very little left of my past life. Seeing the "the home team" play on TV, it's almost like flipping through the photo album (especially when there's a home game, and they flash an overhead view of the city on the screen). Plus whenever I've gone out to see games, you bump into people from the same area; and it's nice. Plus I know the game inside out. I know what position does what, the intricacy of how the plays work, and sometimes the history of the coaches and/or players. It's not productive knowledge that will help with anything. But then again, neither are my macrame skills.
So sometimes professional sports fans that are watching are not always just engaging in mindless, pointless spectacles of prowess. Sometimes it's just because they want a chance to connect with the place they came from, or just permission to jump up and down over something.
In college, our football team wasn't nearly as successful, but insanely popular. Friends and I would make a day-long event of walking to the stadium, freezing in the bleachers, singing "Country Roads" (that's right, the John Denver song!) with 58,000 other people. Afterward we would all hit the town and share pitchers of beer (classy huh?).
While I am far past the tailgating, pom-poms, and beer imbibing that came along with my football spectatorship of years ago (well not that long ago!), here in Florida, I have very little left of my past life. Seeing the "the home team" play on TV, it's almost like flipping through the photo album (especially when there's a home game, and they flash an overhead view of the city on the screen). Plus whenever I've gone out to see games, you bump into people from the same area; and it's nice. Plus I know the game inside out. I know what position does what, the intricacy of how the plays work, and sometimes the history of the coaches and/or players. It's not productive knowledge that will help with anything. But then again, neither are my macrame skills.
So sometimes professional sports fans that are watching are not always just engaging in mindless, pointless spectacles of prowess. Sometimes it's just because they want a chance to connect with the place they came from, or just permission to jump up and down over something.
Josh -
I agree that actors, professional athletes shouldn't be our role models. These are not the people I'd choose for a moral compass (except maybe Oprah). And I certainly don't get the appeal of watching sports on tv. But on the other hand, unless you're at a madreiga where all you're doing is learning torah and doing mitzvos 24x7, most people need some downtime - and apparently this provides the outlet for many of them. Like I said - I don't get it personally, but to each his own.
I agree that actors, professional athletes shouldn't be our role models. These are not the people I'd choose for a moral compass (except maybe Oprah). And I certainly don't get the appeal of watching sports on tv. But on the other hand, unless you're at a madreiga where all you're doing is learning torah and doing mitzvos 24x7, most people need some downtime - and apparently this provides the outlet for many of them. Like I said - I don't get it personally, but to each his own.
MS - I agree that sports can generate very real connections and emotions. I just think that people should be making connections and emotions around real things. It's challenging and often out of reach for people to constantly be aiming at a higher purpose, so it's easier to create silly little sports dramas to make us feel fullfilled. But this just distracts us from noticing our failing to accomplish the harder goals. To steal a phrase from Karl Marx, "Sports and Hollywood are the opiate of the masses."
MH - You chose an odd week to name Oprah as a role model. And it's funny, because I do think that sometimes celebrities can be role models, and that we can learn good lessons from sports, but that is a far cry from idolizing them. Obviously, it is the underlying good that we have to appreciate and value, and that applies to anything in life, be it religious or secular. As far as the need for downtime, I agree. My downtime is blogging - something I still view as constructive. Like macrame. But to quote a Yiddish phrase, "the olam is a golem" (cleaner in Yiddish than English). So I just don't understand how we can have a democracy with such an assumption, and the fascination with sports and hollywood instead of politics just makes me question it more.
MH - You chose an odd week to name Oprah as a role model. And it's funny, because I do think that sometimes celebrities can be role models, and that we can learn good lessons from sports, but that is a far cry from idolizing them. Obviously, it is the underlying good that we have to appreciate and value, and that applies to anything in life, be it religious or secular. As far as the need for downtime, I agree. My downtime is blogging - something I still view as constructive. Like macrame. But to quote a Yiddish phrase, "the olam is a golem" (cleaner in Yiddish than English). So I just don't understand how we can have a democracy with such an assumption, and the fascination with sports and hollywood instead of politics just makes me question it more.
In my younger years I was a huge sports fan. I spouted trivia like you wouldn't believe. During my years in yeshiva after high school I grew more distant from sports, and I was fine with that. It seems that after getting married I have gotten back into it. But I don't think that is so bad. Sports is merely a fun diversion, not the essence of my life. I know what my real priorities are, and they are Judaism and family. I won't skip a chavrusa or minyan because a big game is on TV. It's all about prioritizing. If someone doesn't like sports, fine. There's no obligation to like sports. But it is possible to follow them and still know who your true role models are.
About two weeks after I got back from Israel, a friend gave me three tickets to a New York Mets game, in which it was Jewish heritage Day at Shea Stadium. Why not, I thought. I'd been a Mets fan since I was a child, 8 or 9 years old (around 1983/84).
I took my parents to the game and the three of us were seated behind home plate, in the absolute highest seats in the stadium, the nosebleeds.
A player came to bat, Steve Finley, and he cracked a routine foul ball, which soared higher than the Tower of Babl, and as the ball climbed higher and higher, I looked up and that baby was coming straight at me ... and if I didn't hold my hand out to cover my face, I would have been blessed with a severely broken face, but I caught the ball bare-handed, and instead of a fractured nose, I merely suffered a swollen right thumb.
The crowd around me cheered wildly for exercising fancy fingerwork ... and I jumped up and did a one-woman hora.
I was convinced that H'ashem was showing me signs.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Super Bowl not to watch, B"H.
(btw, that was me who deleted the previous post ... same as this one but I made a typo.)
Hope you're well Josh.
I took my parents to the game and the three of us were seated behind home plate, in the absolute highest seats in the stadium, the nosebleeds.
A player came to bat, Steve Finley, and he cracked a routine foul ball, which soared higher than the Tower of Babl, and as the ball climbed higher and higher, I looked up and that baby was coming straight at me ... and if I didn't hold my hand out to cover my face, I would have been blessed with a severely broken face, but I caught the ball bare-handed, and instead of a fractured nose, I merely suffered a swollen right thumb.
The crowd around me cheered wildly for exercising fancy fingerwork ... and I jumped up and did a one-woman hora.
I was convinced that H'ashem was showing me signs.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Super Bowl not to watch, B"H.
(btw, that was me who deleted the previous post ... same as this one but I made a typo.)
Hope you're well Josh.
JB - You can follow sports, of course. I try and know what's going on in the world too. But I question how we can justify a "diversion" to what we know to be important in life. Can we say, "Gd, building a relationship with you is too intense, I need to kick back?"
EC - In defense of the Ivys, they aren't looking for talent in sports. They aren't looking for the biggest, brawniest guy. They are looking for the leader, the guy was captain of his small prep school team, even if they never one. While muscle fades, this personality carries.
E - See, I knew you were a great catch. Of course, you stick out like a sore thumb. Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.
Elster - I hear what you're saying, and I respect you for disagreeing. I'll admit, I knew you were a big fan before I wrote this, and I was a little hesitant to bash something you're so close to. I think as long as we're truthful about the role of sports, we can be ok. The holiest people will use it to build their faith in Gd. (I knew one Rabbi that watched Seinfeld religiously. Not because he thought it was entertaining, but because he felt he could grow from some of the insights in the show. I respect that, even if I don't gain on the same level.) Others will recognize that sports can distract them from worse things. As long as you are aware of the value of sports overall, and can prioritize it accordingly, I think it's fair. Not everyone is Moshe Rabbeinu. But we have to recognize that he is the role model, and we have to strive in our own way. (And we should recognize where that puts us vis-a-vis others in the community, ie if I spend my time watching prime time, because it's better "than the alternative", I shouldn't go around questioning the Rabbi's or Yeshivish world's monopoly on the Torah. I'm not saying they have one, but we should be aware of our own credentials before we try and decide that we are experts on how to lead a religious life.)
Araya - Is happiness changing the world? Drugs make people happy. But, yes, I'm in.
EC - In defense of the Ivys, they aren't looking for talent in sports. They aren't looking for the biggest, brawniest guy. They are looking for the leader, the guy was captain of his small prep school team, even if they never one. While muscle fades, this personality carries.
E - See, I knew you were a great catch. Of course, you stick out like a sore thumb. Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.
Elster - I hear what you're saying, and I respect you for disagreeing. I'll admit, I knew you were a big fan before I wrote this, and I was a little hesitant to bash something you're so close to. I think as long as we're truthful about the role of sports, we can be ok. The holiest people will use it to build their faith in Gd. (I knew one Rabbi that watched Seinfeld religiously. Not because he thought it was entertaining, but because he felt he could grow from some of the insights in the show. I respect that, even if I don't gain on the same level.) Others will recognize that sports can distract them from worse things. As long as you are aware of the value of sports overall, and can prioritize it accordingly, I think it's fair. Not everyone is Moshe Rabbeinu. But we have to recognize that he is the role model, and we have to strive in our own way. (And we should recognize where that puts us vis-a-vis others in the community, ie if I spend my time watching prime time, because it's better "than the alternative", I shouldn't go around questioning the Rabbi's or Yeshivish world's monopoly on the Torah. I'm not saying they have one, but we should be aware of our own credentials before we try and decide that we are experts on how to lead a religious life.)
Araya - Is happiness changing the world? Drugs make people happy. But, yes, I'm in.
Sorry Shosh, just missed you. I think boxing would come into the same category. Yes, it does represent the human spirit. Just like many sports can showcase some of the finest human qualities. But my point is that it showcases them in a useless way. Michael Jordan showed incomparable finesse on the court. But how much of that skill did he contribute to the world? All these athletes that embody all these lofty ideals are content to waste them on games. We need our society to value actual contributions, not focus on intense sports because their easier to feel good about then feeding the hungry.
El- True, and I'm guessing some would say I'm just jealous that I don't have the talent to accomplish what they do!
Shosh - You have come to understand one of the fears I have - that I am cold and amoral. I sometimes feel that I am detached and removed from everyone around me, and I yearn to feel the emotional, irrational closeness that everyone does. On one hand, the innocence of youth is a great place to turn, but it is the calculated machinery of adulthood that brings progress. I don't know where to turn.
Shosh - You have come to understand one of the fears I have - that I am cold and amoral. I sometimes feel that I am detached and removed from everyone around me, and I yearn to feel the emotional, irrational closeness that everyone does. On one hand, the innocence of youth is a great place to turn, but it is the calculated machinery of adulthood that brings progress. I don't know where to turn.
Um, what does it say about me that I wasn't joking? Why would we read blogs if we didn't like to psychoanalyze (I think that's the word you meant to use)? I also think that is the second time you called me an INTP, and my research on Google neither confirmed nor denied it, since I'm not familiar with Meyers Briggs. I understand we need all types to run the world, those aware of their purpose and those that just follow. I mean, the world runs on the energy of the "sheep." Of course, on top of them there are the "shepherds." And the "butchers."
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