Time to Play!

 For most of my adult life, I was hardly aware that many people watched sports on TV or in person. I was too busy raising a family, maybe. And the culture of the small mountain community where I lived did not seem to notice the whole phenomenon of national sports events like football, basketball and baseball. Then I moved back to Iowa in order to be a support to my aging mother. I worked and lived at a Quaker boarding school nearby (Scattergood) and drove the couple miles to my mother's farmhouse several times a week to check on her and help her with things. Whenever I turned up at her house in the evening, I would find her in the kitchen in front of the big TV watching a game. Depending upon the season, it was football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. And she was an avid fan. Her feet would be stamping on the floor when the excitement of the game was at high pitch. She would praise or bemoan different plays depending upon how it turned out for her chosen team. Until the game was over, I would have to sit there in the kitchen with her and save talk until later.

Especially with a baseball game, I was bored sitting there. Good grief, I thought! Hardly anything is happening. How can my mother be so entranced with this?? But gradually I learned to not only tolerate these games, but to actually enjoy them. Today baseball is my favorite spectator sport. There is so much more to it than meets the eye. When I first started watching sports with my mom, I was a bit mystified by the fact that in this rural Quaker community, whose philosophy was peace, nonviolence, cooperation, anti-war, so many of the members really got into watching competitive sports, even traveling long distances to attend a game in person. Aren't Quakers against competition? Isn't their stance in the world a peaceful one, seeing "that of God in every person"? It seemed like a contradiction.

Now I think I understand this better. It would seem that people have a natural streak of competition built into their genes. In fact, scientists have done studies on competition among animals and even among single-celled beings. One thing they've found is that at least in some tiny species, if their genetic makeup is the same as their neighbors there is no competition. But if a stranger comes along with a slightly different genetic variation, the competitive instinct engages immediately. That is really interesting!

War is the extreme state when our tendency to compete is unchecked. Most of us would agree that we do not want to encourage war. Certainly Quakers do everything they can to find peaceful ways to solve problems and to build bridges between people with disparate viewpoints. When we envision a peaceable kingdom, war is not there at all. Yet what do we do with this inborn instinct to compete? Hmmm. Could this have anything to do with how people sit on uncomfortable bleachers at a football, basketball or baseball game, grinning and cheering and feeling refreshed and recharged? I think so.

We have found a way to channel our competitive instinct into safe and structured games. Think of all the many games we play. There is a whole world of friendly competition out there. And I do mean friendly. Even after the most competitive and tense game, at the end the coaches shake hands, and players greet each other. There is a respectful acknowledgement of the players on both sides.  There's also an understanding that the occasion of the game is not the whole of life but a small brief encounter. One thing I love about baseball games is that as players on one team are running bases, they often have friendly conversation with the basemen on the other side. There is an appreciation of the skill of all the players and a respectful challenge in the game to see who ends up on top at the end.

The other aspect of team sports is cooperation. No team will be able to do well unless they learn how to cooperate with each other, recognize the skills each player has, and work together to go through the motions of the game. The best teams are not the ones where one superior player gets all the points and the others just stand around. Instead, the best teams are the ones who have found a way to act a bit like a single organism. Right now Iowa is in a very exciting place in the sport of basketball. We are in the midst of "March Madness" and the University of Iowa's women just won their "final four" game. That means that today, in just an hour (!), they will play the last game of the tournament with the other winner, LSU (Louisiana State University). This is big. I will be in the common house, packed into our living room with many other people, wildly cheering when the ball goes in the basket, moaning when it misses, praising the passes, living through these players on the screen who represent us. We, the viewers, feel a bit like one organism while we are watching. But the most important part is how the Iowa women are able to work together.

The thing that inspired me to write this blog post today is that there is an amazing ability of this Iowa team to work as one unit. Their identity while playing is the group. They love to work and play together. They have been a team long enough, and with the right kind of inspiring leadership, that when they are out on the floor they're aware of all their teammates, where they are, what they might be able to do, and what might happen next. The action is so smooth and coordinated that it looks like the action of one clever being. Even though Iowa has one player who has gotten much national attention, it is clear that her intent and inspiration is not herself, but rather working as a team to get to their goal. And though this team really likes to win, their biggest love is just playing together. 

Now I only have a few minutes before I head to the common house to watch the big screen with my neighbors. One of my friends told me that sitting in a cheering crowd like this is a kind of group effervescence. I can say truly that Friday, when our Iowa team won and we had cheered through the whole game, supporting them from our seats, was one of the most joyful gatherings I've ever experienced, and that was because we were loudly, happily experiencing joy together. And together is the key.