General Crosstalk - A Spot for the Odd Comment
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The heavens provide regular full moons that are quite beautiful, when they capture one's attention. Unfortunately, they tend to go unnoticed most of the time.
A car driving through Harvard Square back in the 1970's offered another full moon by a young man, who had quite the audience. One of those moons is enough for a lifetime.
A car driving through Harvard Square back in the 1970's offered another full moon by a young man, who had quite the audience. One of those moons is enough for a lifetime.
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene
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The super bowl is over and it has a really valuable lesson worth hearing. The lesson isn't about sports. It is about other people's opinions of you and how seriously one should take them.
I have to start by talking about sports, but I promise to keep it brief. I will get to the point as soon as I can.
New England won the super bowl. This is the fourth time they have won the super bowl with their quarterback, Tom Brady. He won the most valuable player award and this is the third time he has been given this award. In fact, Brady has many awards. Most valuable player in football twice, various scoring and passing records, and many more.
Here is the point. When Brady graduated from college, he was selected 199th in the draft. The way the draft works, each of the 32 teams take turns drafting the best players for their teams. The teams have staffs of experts who evaluate the talent and tell the managers whom to select. These experts picked 198 players before Brady. Not five or seven, they picked 198.
So, when someone tells you, you don't have it, remember Tom Brady. Everyone told him he didn't have it.
I have to start by talking about sports, but I promise to keep it brief. I will get to the point as soon as I can.
New England won the super bowl. This is the fourth time they have won the super bowl with their quarterback, Tom Brady. He won the most valuable player award and this is the third time he has been given this award. In fact, Brady has many awards. Most valuable player in football twice, various scoring and passing records, and many more.
Here is the point. When Brady graduated from college, he was selected 199th in the draft. The way the draft works, each of the 32 teams take turns drafting the best players for their teams. The teams have staffs of experts who evaluate the talent and tell the managers whom to select. These experts picked 198 players before Brady. Not five or seven, they picked 198.
So, when someone tells you, you don't have it, remember Tom Brady. Everyone told him he didn't have it.
Last edited by Roncooper on Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hey Ron. Indeed Tom Brady is a great Quarterback and the excellent example you just provided triggered something I saw earlier this morning that had to do with character.
The game last night had a pretty close finish and not without the sudden turnaround at the last moment that provided the high drama these events are know for. This was further enhanced by a grand display of " brawling " at the end that I thought highlighted one of the biggest problems facing athletics of what is ( acceptable conduct ) and the huge divide from what caught my eye this morning in this piece about " Sportmanship ". And it makes me wonder what messages are being imprinted upon the young minds of the children who aspire to emulate these athletes as models and any sense of responsibility in this role any of these people feel. ( My issue here is not so much pointed at any particular individual but more toward the social values that determine behavior. ) Domestic violence within the NFL this last year I think is really a symptom of a much larger condition the permeates throughout the culture where material product endorsement such as Brand name and " Bravado " is considered to have more marketing value as a hallmark characteristic of something to emulate than Sportsmanship, fairness, compassion, selflessness, and perhaps in some cases even tenderness; partly because they may seem to indicate some sort of weakness or character flaw.
So when I saw this image this morning after all of the glitter and media pomp and ceremony of last night it reminded me of some things that seem to me to be reminiscent of an earlier time where these other virtues were more highly esteemed for their character building attributes for children as well as adults than the marketability and cost of a Super Bowl Ad or the half time extravaganza of a music personality.
( I don't mean this to sound like a rant here; but the link touched a me in a certain poignant way about something I knew growing up that I think seems to have been lost. Times change I know but perhaps this is just me. All the same it was nice to see a moment like this emerge once more if even only briefly. )
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... 18313.html
The game last night had a pretty close finish and not without the sudden turnaround at the last moment that provided the high drama these events are know for. This was further enhanced by a grand display of " brawling " at the end that I thought highlighted one of the biggest problems facing athletics of what is ( acceptable conduct ) and the huge divide from what caught my eye this morning in this piece about " Sportmanship ". And it makes me wonder what messages are being imprinted upon the young minds of the children who aspire to emulate these athletes as models and any sense of responsibility in this role any of these people feel. ( My issue here is not so much pointed at any particular individual but more toward the social values that determine behavior. ) Domestic violence within the NFL this last year I think is really a symptom of a much larger condition the permeates throughout the culture where material product endorsement such as Brand name and " Bravado " is considered to have more marketing value as a hallmark characteristic of something to emulate than Sportsmanship, fairness, compassion, selflessness, and perhaps in some cases even tenderness; partly because they may seem to indicate some sort of weakness or character flaw.
So when I saw this image this morning after all of the glitter and media pomp and ceremony of last night it reminded me of some things that seem to me to be reminiscent of an earlier time where these other virtues were more highly esteemed for their character building attributes for children as well as adults than the marketability and cost of a Super Bowl Ad or the half time extravaganza of a music personality.
( I don't mean this to sound like a rant here; but the link touched a me in a certain poignant way about something I knew growing up that I think seems to have been lost. Times change I know but perhaps this is just me. All the same it was nice to see a moment like this emerge once more if even only briefly. )
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... 18313.html
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne
You have struck one of my pet peeves here. In my opinion this lack of sportsmanship points to the lack of a new mythology that Campbell says we need. This new world myth would have a code of honor for behavior.
Unfortunately there are two powerful groups that will prevent this from happening, people who worship money and intellectuals. Money people want your income to be the measure of your worth, not your behavior, and inetllectuals claim that values are relative. I think this is a terrible message to tell young people. I believe that the vast majority of the population of the world could agree on simple code for behavior.
Unfortunately there are two powerful groups that will prevent this from happening, people who worship money and intellectuals. Money people want your income to be the measure of your worth, not your behavior, and inetllectuals claim that values are relative. I think this is a terrible message to tell young people. I believe that the vast majority of the population of the world could agree on simple code for behavior.
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My intimate familiarity with domestic violence comes from personal experience and from many, many professional encounters with the behavioral phenomenon.
Values don't determine behavior. They influence in advance and they reflect what is there for all kinds of complicated reasons. Football in America is a physical sport, and children have bodies and minds that can figure out that it is okay to injure other people in the context of a socially celebrated "sport", entertainment, circus and gladiator contest.
In romance and marriage and raising families, there is another competition. There are many more celebrated events and media myths, democratically shared throughout the culture. In the NFL, the violence is the macho man's JOB. In his romantic power struggles, the macho man is provoked to violence, and expected to express his raging emotions without the one tool he has developed to the greatest extent. Suddenly, his head and his body are severed. The body is feeling violent, and his mind is trained to
......What? Stop and be a saint, a hero?
Seriously?
Gentlemen, you can't revel in the circus of professional violence and then suggest that the conditions for violence cannot be absolutely identical within the context of high stakes romantic and familial relationships.
Separating our violence will require more attention to the PERSONAL and less to the social.
NFL stars are people and the women they believe they have earned through their exploits are encouraged to treat them with a special kind of disrespect that we reserve for the gladiators who entertain us like the lions in the Roman circus.
It's complicated, fellas....very complicated.
~
Values don't determine behavior. They influence in advance and they reflect what is there for all kinds of complicated reasons. Football in America is a physical sport, and children have bodies and minds that can figure out that it is okay to injure other people in the context of a socially celebrated "sport", entertainment, circus and gladiator contest.
In romance and marriage and raising families, there is another competition. There are many more celebrated events and media myths, democratically shared throughout the culture. In the NFL, the violence is the macho man's JOB. In his romantic power struggles, the macho man is provoked to violence, and expected to express his raging emotions without the one tool he has developed to the greatest extent. Suddenly, his head and his body are severed. The body is feeling violent, and his mind is trained to
......What? Stop and be a saint, a hero?
Seriously?
Gentlemen, you can't revel in the circus of professional violence and then suggest that the conditions for violence cannot be absolutely identical within the context of high stakes romantic and familial relationships.
Separating our violence will require more attention to the PERSONAL and less to the social.
NFL stars are people and the women they believe they have earned through their exploits are encouraged to treat them with a special kind of disrespect that we reserve for the gladiators who entertain us like the lions in the Roman circus.
It's complicated, fellas....very complicated.
~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene
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Thank you for making my point about intellectuals.
I have followed a code of honor all of my life. One that I learned as a young teenager, which was reinforced when I was in the army. In the army you are trained to do the right thing without thinking, which comes from the Samari tradition. The code becomes subconscious.
That code is no longer stressed in society. It has been replaced by greed and intellectual jibber jabber.
I was taught that you never hit a girl, ever, no excuses. I know this didn't eliminate the problem, but I think it helped. Now it is all about causes and excuses. It is too confusing for a young man.
Where is the website that honors honor, where a young man can post "I took no for an answer," and get a pat on the back, or, "she was drunk so I took her home."
Never mind, its too complicated.
I have followed a code of honor all of my life. One that I learned as a young teenager, which was reinforced when I was in the army. In the army you are trained to do the right thing without thinking, which comes from the Samari tradition. The code becomes subconscious.
That code is no longer stressed in society. It has been replaced by greed and intellectual jibber jabber.
I was taught that you never hit a girl, ever, no excuses. I know this didn't eliminate the problem, but I think it helped. Now it is all about causes and excuses. It is too confusing for a young man.
Where is the website that honors honor, where a young man can post "I took no for an answer," and get a pat on the back, or, "she was drunk so I took her home."
Never mind, its too complicated.
Yesterday the announcement was made that another manuscript had been discovered and would be published that was the original genesis to the book: " To Kill A Mocking Bird ". This short video link may seem a bit of a stretch here; but in this scene from the movie Scout's father; Atticus Finch; attempts to explain 2 very important insights about human nature and how to get along in the world. I think if more children were provided a mindful, patient, and gentle approach to explaining seeing the other side of things and how human beings are just like us perhaps it might go a long way toward helping to separate which values are worth keeping and how people should treat each other. ( Although we don't all live in a perfect world it would probably help us to get along in the one we have. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05CMl4hwcc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05CMl4hwcc
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne
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Sorry, Ron. You're right. I'm addressing the problem faced by those without proper upbringing. Hate to tell you, but some folks do not choose their parents or their homes.Roncooper wrote:Thank you for making my point about intellectuals.
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Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene