WA and "Sports Ball"

Reading the plethora of blogs and quips which come at us every day must give us pause to seriously reflect on just what they all mean, not merely the individual attempts at wisdom or humor, but the collective meaning of it all.

And here you will have to indulge the old philosophy/physics major in his idiosyncratic endeavor to try to make some sense of it all, because the sheer number is becoming quite overwhelming, even modestly stated.

There have been a number of us in the WA Community who have lamented the onslaught of e-missives which share with us their individual perceptions of life, of wisdom, of inspirations, and of the endless parade of opinions and proclivities which we are encouraged to honor and acknowledge if we want our rankings to become impressive.

I know that on a single day earlier this week I responded to no less than 146 of them – sincerely, honestly, and as thoroughly as I could. I have been informed that this is not an unusual amount to receive and/or to offer responses.

My real dilemma is this – there seem to be so many of these personal observations which are repetitions of other penetrating pearls of humanity to which we are supposed to render equal homage and tribute. If we do not, then the algorithms which calculate our rankings drop their value-assessments resulting in little or no positive change in rank.

I am all for creating a “community”, but it is beginning to appear that the ranking has become the summum bonum of the WA program and learning how to make a living from an online business has taken a back seat to the WA Community’s efforts at blessing us with their individual astuteness.

And that’s when it hit me. My wonderful wife, who suffers being married to “one of ‘those’ jocks who can actually read” along with his scions who all have been cursed with their father’s “debility” in this fashion, looks at all athletic participation and achievement as a monolithic venture, which she labels “Sports Ball”.

Now, this is for every sport ever devised or invented – to her there is no difference between American Football and Australian Rules Football, between tennis and baseball. It has a “ball” in it doesn’t it? Folks run around after it or avoiding it, right? Well, then, it’s “Sports Ball”.

This is where I found an apt analogy, because one of the most important elements of athletic participation, of “sport”, is understanding and appreciating that without a competitor against whom to “do battle”, there is NO “sport” – NO competition – NO athletic activity – NO “Sports Ball”.

No, the submitters of those endless e-missives are NOT our “competitors”, but they ARE a significant part of OUR WA Community. By definition, where there is only “one” there is no community. Thus, without those contributing blogs, we have no “Community” – no WA as we have come to know it.

It would merely be a list of “how to” in sequential order, and our achievements would not have the same impact on us as members of a “community” whose “citizens” are all striving toward the same goal.

You see, we all play “Sports Ball”. Keep it alive with those e-missives, folks! Don’t know what my wife would do if WA didn’t have its own version of “Sports Ball”.