Needs of the one; wants of the many

One thing’s for certain: sitting in a saloon, you get to watch a lot of TV – or, should I say,  a lot of TVs.

Yeah, the average gin joint sports about as many screens as the back wall of the local Walmart, generally all tuned to sports, based on the apt observation that the outcome of Twins versus Sox is less likely to inspire fisticuffs than Truth versus Fox.

Fortunately for the proprietors, the Wide World of Sports has expanded geometrically since the first televised “agony of defeat” to give an all but endless array of options to keep the elbow benders entertained. It was thanks to this showcasing of the awesome variety of human athletic endeavor that I was privileged to witness Eagle McMahon’s stunning victory in the Portland Open, Professional Disc Golf Tournament.

Yeah, there are people out there who make a living playing Frisbee golf... Who woulda thunk it?

And on the big screen right next to it was the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Back flips and Frisbee flips … all in a single glance.

One is a serious international competition, the other, a goofy contest suited to beer drinking college kids on a sunny afternoon.

So where does beach volleyball fit into all of this? Or competitive skate boarding?

Heck, just going fishin’ has become a spectator sport – top bass tournament fishermen rack up winnings of more than $350,000 a year. Now I know Og the Caveman’s cousin fished for a living … but what he caught, he didn’t throw back.

Interesting how when some folks do for money what most folks just do for fun we tend to take them so very seriously.

Now that makes sense if a guy happens to have 10 grand riding on the outcome of the next light heavyweight matchup, or for the CEO who’s just signed off on a multi-million dollar endorsement deal. That, as they say, is serious skin in the game. But, for the rest of us, a game is, well, just a game.

And, with a nod to the Bard, most participants just poor players, that strut and fret their minutes upon the field and are seen no more…

Which, of course, brings us to Simone Biles, who, of course, is not a poor player at all, but, by most accounts, the best in her sport. When she declined to compete it was an international incident, pushing aside war, pestilence and famine to dominate the awareness of a goodly portion of the planetary population.

Her Bartleby-esque, “I prefer not to” was compared unfavorably to the resolve required of combat soldiers, test pilots and firefighters, oblivious to the reality that no lives have ever depended upon a gymnast jumping high into the air.

Sport is not real life. ESPN, the IOC, and the multiple billions invested in multitudinous professional leagues notwithstanding. Without a hungry bear in hot pursuit, Olympic sprinters are just running a schoolyard race writ large. Just so many kids’ games, played by adults.

Simone Biles appears to have gotten her head around that fact. At 24 she is at the beginning of what should be a very long life, a life that could have been cut short or permanently disrupted in a microsecond’s error. The only life and future at stake was her own.

She chose wisely.

It’s a choice we can learn from. To misquote Mr. Spock, “The needs of the one outweigh the demands and desires of the many.”  We all have the right to say “no,” to place our personal integrity – mental, physical, emotional – above the pressure to please whomever. It takes a measure of courage to shut off the email, take the vacation, leave the office in time for supper, take a pass on the overtime once the rent is paid.

Life isn’t the Olympics. It’s way more important than that.