Sporting Spirit

Long time without writing here, and I happen to have got the inspiration after watching the final match of the European soccer Champions' League (and a few drinks while watching, of course...)

I'd like to start apologizing a bit if you felt that the blog started on a bit of a political note, despite what I tried to explain in its "manifesto". As my wife just told me to underline, we don't want this blog to be political, mainly because the current political landscape makes us pretty sick, and also because we think that part of this bad situation is caused exactly by talking/writing about politics instead of actually taking more interesting subjects.

So, although we want to distance this blog from politics, we still want it to be in the vanguard when it comes to proposing and defending a certain manner of thinking and acting. And the so called "sporting spirit" can be seen as an example of what we would like to see more in the world.

Personally, I'm not much into sports, or not at all if I compare myself to the average Italian (or Mexican, my other half) guy. For two reasons, both of which are mainly my fault:

1. As a kid, I didn't react well at all to some bullying, which was actually just normal pushy and competitive behavior in the field, when playing various team sports such as soccer, basket ball or volley ball. It was my fault, I should have just pushed myself more, to prove those pushy people wrong, but I felt myself a bit, in the sense of feeling a tad "above" those behaviors, and I made a mistake in doing so, because not participating doesn't make anyone better, just like not challenging yourself is no good for you.
2. Still as a kid, I started seeing a lot of drama and acting in the field, when watching European (specifically Italian) soccer league games, and I felt like that was ruining the game a lot, so I stopped watching completely.
   

For the first point, I made clear why it was my fault: I do believe (thanks to the adult super-power called hindsight...) that it's good to take the heat of criticism directed towards one's abilities in any sport, because that's how one grows, and it's part of what sport is about. Competitiveness.

The second point, you might think I was right, and you might think it's what this post is about: the lack of sporting spirit of those players that act like they are nearly dying out of a simple touch from an enemy player, just to try and secure a fault to their advantage.

Well, in a way, of course that's not a good sporting spirit, but the worst is probably, as I said, still my fault: stopping to watch something just because someone lacks sporting spirit. It's basically responding with the same mistake.

I do believe, now (a bit late I might say), that we should all watch these games, even when the sporting spirit is at such low levels, because first of all they are lessons about what kind of bad behavior one can encounter in other human beings, and second because even if the majority resorts to these dishonorable cheap tricks, there will always be a player or two, a moment or two, in which true sporting spirit will be shown, and that's just amazing. Because it shows that even if some people give the worst examples and set the bar so low when it comes to honor and ethics, even the people closest to them can still act in decent, honorable ways.

Since this blog is mostly about family life, I would say that it's extra-good to watch sports together in the family, because kids in particular can get so many good moral lessons, even from the worst behavior.

They might of course get the feeling that I got and took so seriously back then when I decided to lose all interest in soccer. But that's when the parents can step in, and point to the son or daughter the good players, that will keep the sporting spirit to the highest standards even in the face of the worst environment set by their fellow or enemy players alike.

So what is the essence of sporting spirit? I think it's deeply related to honor. And a definition I like a lot of the concept of honor, says something like: "You are honorable if you, and the people that depend on you, can always feel proud of the way you act." - In a way, sporting spirit bring this to a further level, because you should try to not only make yourself and the people close to you proud of your actions, but even your enemies. Basically, nobody should ever be ashamed of his/her actions, to be a paragon of what I consider "sporting spirit".
Making mistakes is human, and never affects this. But the way you react to your own mistakes affects it a lot. If you try to mask your mistakes as something or someone else's, you lose honor, and sportsmanship. If you beat yourself too much, the same. If you beat yourself too little, same too. There is a fine line, really, but I think universally recognizable. So much so that I shouldn't even try to describe it, because I know you, whoever you are, are well aware of it.

That fine line of good sportsmanship, of honor, of sporting spirit, is a line worth pursuing in probably every aspect of life. It's not easy at all, because of course when their is no public to watch us, we all have the temptation of acting the fool in. After all, who will ever know, we say. But that's exactly where sporting spirit can be a guideline. Try to think of the times in which, like myself as a kid, you were so ashamed of the behavior of your idols, on the field. When they tried to take advantage of the referee not understanding what actually happened because he was not looking. We should all remember those lessons, and apply them when no referee is looking at us: don't think that you can get away with dishonorable behavior when you're not judged by anyone. Because your spirit will notice. And it will betray you just like you betrayed it, when you least expect it.

It might be the oldest moral lesson of all, but it's a classic. And classics are called like this for a reason: they never age, they never get old, they are always actual. And still, they are forgotten too often.

So keep up the sporting spirit, everyone!