29th Confession

I'm not a sports nut.  I know, shocker to anyone who knows me, right?  I used to be athletic and enjoy the physical exertion, but that all died at about age 14.  All through late elementary school, I was into the intramural sports things: soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball - I did them all.  About that age, though, the music started.  I reverted back to my first love of instruments and gave up the other.

It's been somewhat of an alienating factor for me with other guys, much to my annoyance.  I mean, everyone loves football, right?  OSU mania is all around me here in Columbus, I lived in "da 'burgh" for a while with their beloved "Stillers," as well as attending a high school where Fridays were always "pump up the team" day: so what's wrong with Ryan that he hates sports?

Maybe it was too many cold nights in a wet, woolen band uniform.  Maybe it was disillusionment with the establishment.  Maybe it was too many overpaid people doing too little work and living too loosely.  Maybe it was just the fact that I haven't been exposed to it enough.  Maybe a season following a team religiously would knock it out of my system, and I'd become a "real man."

I always hated stereotypes, wherever they were.  Real men watch football and baseball and know the roster of their teams.  Good wives are brilliant in the kitchen.  Once a son, always a daughter.  White guys don't dance.  Nerds are socially inadept.  Sports figures are to be emulated, like actors and singers and anyone else who crosses the national consciousness for more than thirty seconds.

Who told you that?  Who fed us this?  It's the same garbage that separates the "secular" and the "sacred".  "Good" people don't drink; "bad" people go to bars.  "Good" people attend church on Sundays; "bad" people sleep in or golf.  "Secular" music is bad for your soul; "CCM" is uplifting and positive.

Is this always true?  I've known good people - some of the best, in fact - with whom I'm honored to have knocked back a couple of tequizas.  I've known bad people who have been teetotalers.  Some of the most selfish, arrogant, deceitful people go to church every Sunday.  Some of the nicest pre-Christians that I know shun the religious establishment because of their wounds inflicted by the house.  I once spent a week ingesting the salient points of a message from my Abba while obsessing over "Take a Chance on Me."  I listen to the local CCM station and feel completely anesthetized, not to mention nauseous, after about ten minutes.  Sidebar to that: one of the local CCM DJ's is now at an all-80's station.  Does that mean he's lost his way, spiritually?

Sports is a worthy endeavor: there is something to be said about entertaining the masses, being physically fit, and for the national unity during the Super Bowl or the Final Four.  But as with everything, there must be moderation and balance: I watch enough to know the rules and enjoy the athletic prowess of the individuals, but I can't watch an entire season.