Get In The Game

Sometimes we see absurd (but maybe not) commercials on television about people doing the ordinary mundane things of life in some grand way as throwing a crumpled page into a wastecan as though sinking the winning basket in a championship game. Lately I have thought there is more here than initially meets the eye. The actual celebrities that do these grand things in athletic contests, on stages or in movies are inserted into artificial situations which so many of us cosely follow and feed upon, and applaud or lament, and we live a part of our lives vicariously through these stars and superstars in their myriads of situatons, venues and settings. But as we do this we are prone to overlook the fact that the real contests and performances are being played out instead in our own daily lives while oftentimes we the players are oblivious. We are the players and our stories are the stuff on which all the grand fictions of art and sport are based. They must look to US to get their ideas (and the process continues as we return the favor) and We are continually scoring invisible points in a sense even earning oscars by faith when we serve one another and thank one another even in little ways, when we fasten our seatbelts and abide by speedlimits and allow people into traffic flow, when we pick up litter and recycle, and venture into unfamiliar territory to find a new route, when we play hurt so to speak by going to work while in pain and preferriing to stay home. There is applause somewhere when we don’t react to insensitivity or unkindness and when we attempt to share what light we have, even if it is not received. Even great athletes, musicians, and actors or actresses will tell you the real heroes are the ones in the trenches of daily life with us, making a practical difference where they can and usually unrecognized and unthanked and unrewarded for it. They will say that the real heroes are not the ones who thrill us on the big screens and in the giant arenas, nor are they justifyable scapegoats when they disappoint, since the real failure and disappointment starts within with ourselves, especially if we have dropped out of the game, and become mere spectators in the sport or critics in the art of life.