Calling all Sports fans (doesn't matter which sport)! Help a poor and clueless writer

[capri0mni]

I just opened the flyer announcing the next The Art Garden (a sort of literary magazine, except the writers read their work before a live audience, instead of having it printed and mailed). The performance date is April 22, the submission deadline is April 14th, the theme is "Sports," and I have no idea what to write.

The Art Garden's general tone is to find the spiritual and enlightening in seemingly mundane subjects (I think my best recent Art Garden piece was the one I wrote for "Shoes," for example). But my attitude toward sports, in general, is decidedly "Meh." I neither like nor dislike them, and I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.

So -- if you are the fan of a sport (really doesn't matter which one), could you please tell me why you like playing, or watching, it? Maybe that would jiggle some braincells loose.

Thanks so much!

Comments

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I'm not really a fan of sport, but I do have a theory that they take the place of warfare in our society. The whole "us vs. them" mentality, dressing up in team colors (clan plaids, much?), rivalry between cities, etc. Something to think about, anyway. :)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea... I will think about it. ;-)

The only problem is, though, that it hasn't exactly taken the place of warfare, has it?(Thinks about right after 9/11, when fighter jets would fly in a display over the stadium before a ball game).

Sigh... if only.

But I think you're right about the symbolic nature of sports competition... The question is: symbolic of what?

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Well, it *has* taken the place of small-scale tribal warfare, i.e. cattle-raiding and stuff like that. I wish it *would* take the place of large-scale warfare. Hey, I want your land, I challenge you to a game of cricket! ;)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Either that, or small-scale tribal warfare has just stopped (at least, officially -- there are still gangs like the Crips and the Bloods), because it no longer gets us what we need.

I mean, for a long while, organized sports existed side by side with tribal warfare (thinks of the original Olympics, in ancient Greece, not to mention all the races and ball games that show up in Celtic myths).

[clamnebula.livejournal.com]

Tho' I haven't actually done it in ages, one sport I really personally enjoyed was skiing. I never did it as a competitive thing, just me and the snow and the skis. I think I liked the floating feeling I got when I went downhill. Also, on a not so crowded day, you could get sort of a sense of peaceful isolation. I enjoy watching certain winter sports, too, and actually wish I'd been paying more attention when the Olympics were going on!

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

and actually wish I'd been paying more attention when the Olympics were going on!

I actually tried to watch the Olympics this year, in preparation for writing this piece, and was bored to the point of coma by it all... And someone else on my f'list (maybe she'll speak up here, soon), who's an avid fan of ice skating, felt the same way; NBC's coverage, it seems was appallingly bad. She actually stayed up to watch the Russian and Japanese coverage via the Web, instead.

Silent Sports

[heronheart.livejournal.com]

If you're not limited to competitive sports, then the whole area of the "Silent Sports" opens up. Specifically: canoeing, mountain biking, and technical tree climbing (http://www.treeclimbing.com/). I haven't had the chance to try the tree climbing but I think part of what appeals to me about all three of them is that they move me out of the ordinary human world. Canoeing puts me out on the water into a world of fish, birds, and cattails. Mountain biking quickly gets me into the state park where I can drop into first gear and slowly cruise down a trail hunting for mushrooms. Tree-climbing would just be an awesome way to hang out with the squirrels! Beyond that it feels really good to use my body and feel physically competent, not to mention burning a few calories.

Re: Silent Sports

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

The family edition of American Heritage Dictionary is at least 42 years old (been on the shelf since before I was born -- Dad suspects it may be as old as 60 years), and, in that volume, there's no mention of competition anywhere in the definiton of "sport."

But in my own, cd-rom edition (copyright '87-'95), competition is mentioned in definition #1. I wonder if the development of T.V. sports broadcastomg has anything to do with that...

Beyond that it feels really good to use my body and feel physically competent.

That may be a big part of my indifference; as someone with cerebral palsy, "bodily, kinesthetic" is the weakest among my seven intelligences -- I need to concentrate on an intellectual, conscious level just to stand upright. Asking me what I think of sports is like asking someone who's colorblind to wax poetical on the color red...

On the other hand, I can clearly see that sports has a massive effect on the overall culture of which I'm a part, and my interpersonal intelligence is pretty high (if I say so, myself). So I'll probably go with that angle...

Re: Silent Sports

[heronheart.livejournal.com]

That may be a big part of my indifference; as someone with cerebral palsy, "bodily, kinesthetic" is the weakest among my seven intelligences -- I need to concentrate on an intellectual, conscious level just to stand upright. Asking me what I think of sports is like asking someone who's colorblind to wax poetical on the color red...

Being red/green colorblind I "see" your point. As a thought, there are those who consider games like backgammon and chess to be sports. But as you say, there is just the sheer effect that our society's obsession with professional sports has on all of us.

Re: Silent Sports

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Being red/green colorblind I "see" your point.

Heh. And now that I think about it, I'm getting all self-conscious about that analogy, because I realize that our experiences probably aren't really alike...

Sigh. Oh, well, such is the risk of human perception and its limitations.

But as a mask-maker, you can give me unique feedback on this idea:

That our group obsession with organized sport is linked to the ritualized aspect of it. Running in circles, yelling "Wubba, wubba, wubba!" (or tree climbing, for that matter) may be a physical form of recreation, but it's not a 'sport' until we regulate it with rules and customs. The team uniforms and identity are a sort of blank theatrical mask to which the fans can assign meaning (for example, I was rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series in '04 because I wanted Kerry to win the presidential election, and with their pinstripes and neat haircuts, the Yankees always struck me as just a tad Republican).

Re: Silent Sports

[heronheart.livejournal.com]

Heh. And now that I think about it, I'm getting all self-conscious about that analogy, because I realize that our experiences probably aren't really alike...

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as we realize that all analogies breakdown at somepoint and that none of us can ever really "grok" someone elses experiences then we should be okay.

As far as masks go, they can be either liberating or constraining. If I wear a Freddy Krueger mask people feel they more or less know what to expect from me. If I wear something less familiar then I may be more liberated but also more threatening, especially if it confuses gender. Most team insignias, face paint, etc, confer a comfortable identity. It doesn't matter so much who you identify with as long as you identify with a group that's familiar to the people around you. Identifying with a sports team tends to affirm a certain attitude towards competition, masculinity, etc.

[pedanther]

Random thought: It has been suggested that sports fans who go to the big game wearing clothes, silly hats, and facepaint all in their team's colours are socially-acceptable version of sf fans who go to conventions dressed as their favourite character.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Not only is is acceptible behavior, it's rewarded behavior -- it gets you on T.V..

Though I'd put the potbellied guys who take off their shirts, and paint the letters of their team's name on their chests, in the same catagory as the nerds who dress in a polyester cyberman suit for the entire day.

And the question is: why is one behavior rewarded and the other derided? Why don't we have Halls of Fame for poets or mathematians?

[pedanther]

Well, the guy in the cyberman suit gets on TV as well: if the local TV news bothers to cover the convention, they always focus on the guys in the costumes and never on the people dressed normally...