What is it about professional and college sports that draws people in? Is the competitive drive so innate that we choose a team and go to battle, whether we really have any personal stake in the game or not? What inspires grown men to paint their faces and bodies and brave freezing temperatures (sometimes shirtless) to show their allegiance to “their” team? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I am a sports fan. I love a good, competitive, entertaining game as much as the next person. But I don’t really have “a team.” Unless it’s a school I went to, or a school a friend’s child goes to, or I am in some way connected to the team…I don’t really care who wins or who loses. I root for the Angels in baseball because that’s the team closest to where we live. We don’t have a pro football team anywhere near – the closest one is in San Diego. As for basketball, we have the Lakers. But, I am kind of anti-Lakers. I dislike the Lakers for a much the same reason I have always disliked the Yankees. I’ve never been one to jump on a bandwagon. But, that’s a whole other post!
I appreciate the beauty of sports…a graceful leap to catch a ball, a runner so smooth they look like a gazelle, footwork that would rival a dancer’s. I marvel at it the same way I marvel at the ballet dancers in Swan Lake, or the figure skaters in the Olympics. But I don’t think I’ll ever understand real fans (which is short for fanatical, you know).
So I asked my husband: what is the deal about professional sports? Why the craziness? His answer? Humans are born with a competitive drive; if you’re not talented enough to actually play, then you watch. If gives people something to take pride in, and it unites them. It gives them something to be loyal to. And when some guy beats the odds and experiences a moment of greatness? Maybe we can’t do it ourselves…but we can witness it. We can experience it with him. And that’s the next best thing. There are always going to be rotten apples but, for the most part, sports bring out the good things in people: strength and drive and sheer will to win. Sports give people something and someone to believe in. I don’t know about you, but that answer satisfies me. I guess I married a pretty smart guy.
As for this week’s pictures…I’ve been slacking. I had already posted up to Wednesday, January 18th. So here are the ones for Thursday – Sunday, most recent first. Enjoy!
01/22/12: Brandon tattooing on a friend...
01/21/12: This is another photo from Florida, since I didn't take a pic today. I thought it was cool how this woman was standing there painting, and the man in the chair had no idea she was painting HIM. LOL.
01/20/12: Well, I slacked again today. No picture from today. But, we were *supposed* to go to Disneyland - so I made today's pic one I took a couple of weeks ago. Loved the way the setting sun lit up the Matterhorn and showed the colors in the leaves.
