Seeing the title of this inspirational piece doubtlessly made some folks wince. Others may actually have chosen not to read it because they don’t want to read about choosing winners. I admit up front, I have mixed feelings about it. In part I know this has to do with my own Quaker tradition, as I understand it. And part of it also has to do with my life-long involvement in athletics where winners and losers abound. Finally, I wonder whether also wanting to live a spiritual life helps or only complicates the process.
I begin with my own reservations and, perhaps, anticipating what folks thought who did not even want to read about this. Winners certainly imply losers---at least in our culture. It separates people. There are winners in all corners of our culture. People who get paid more are clearly economic winners. The poor have-nots struggle to get along or, maybe even, survive.
The same is true of the whole justice system. Lady Justice may be portrayed as blind, but most of us know things like race play a role in making justice sometimes a farce. “Equal under the law” is an empty phrase in too many places. We see this in small ways, such as traffic stops of non-white drivers. And we see it on the national scale in the death of George Floyd and too many others. We may have gotten rid of slavery, but we sure have not eradicated racism. There are losers---and winners.
I have done my fair share of losing as an athlete. I was never the best and never the worst athlete. Sometimes my teams won, but truthfully, I think we probably lost more than we won. My world likely resembles the fictional place, Lake Wobegon, created by Garrison Keillor. This Lake Wobegon effect highlights the human tendency to inflate our abilities and achievements. In that place “all the children are above average!” I was above average, in my memory. But honestly, I did lose a fair amount.
At least as I felt it growing up, Quakers were uneasy with the winners-losers model. Quakers always begin with the affirmation that “there is that of God within each person.” At this level, there can be no loser. I steadfastly agreed with that---and still do. It has informed my own conviction towards working for peace, being against the death penalty and so on. I have not quibbled on that.
But when I go to an athletic match, I am ardent in rooting for my team. And I hope they score more points! There may be “that of God in every athlete on the court,” but some of them are going to come up short on points! And if my team wins, I really don’t feel too bad. Secretly, I am thrilled. I am not uneasy about that until I get philosophical and removed from the situation. And then there are all those things like spellings bees and the whole lot. Some kids truly are smarter, faster, etc.
Sometimes we face the alternative, compete or cooperate. Often that does make sense. When I think about the global stage, it makes no sense (to me) that we see nations competing for many things. There is an element about capitalism that makes me uncomfortable. I know politics can be very competitive. Too often, it is a “we choose, you lose” situation. Too often, winners don’t do a very good job of sharing and caring. I don’t think that is what most of our religious traditions had in mind.
Even spiritually, the winners-losers model can be tricky. I wonder if it is not too simplistic to say, “spiritually we are all winners?” A big part of me wants to affirm this and close the discussion. But that may be nothing more than my wish to dismiss the difficult discussion. As I read the Christian Bible, there does seem to be many stories of loss and of losers. Certainly, Adam and Eve seems to have lost something special. They were thrown out of Eden and now live East of Eden, as the great novelist John Steinbeck describes. Jacob and Esau had their issues. Judas clearly is portrayed as a loser for most Christians---even though the Romans were pleased.
I am sorry I don’t have full clarity yet. That may be disappointing or merely realistic. Right now, I am going with the latter. At the spiritual level, I believe my Quaker tradition and the Genesis creation account and say we are at our core in the image of God and are grounded in the Spirit. We are all winners in this sense. But ironically, we did nothing to win! God granted us this favor. It is by grace.
In the real world and certainly in the arbitrary world of athletics (and maybe spelling bees, etc.), there are differences. And in that arbitrary world, differences are recognized, honored, and celebrated. I am good with that. I don’t want to play games where everyone gets a trophy. And I am not sure it is good for our kids either. Somehow, I think competition can be fun, healthy and even Seeing the title of this inspirational piece doubtlessly made some folks wince. Others may actually have chosen not to read it because they don’t want to read about choosing winners. I admit up front, I have mixed feelings about it. In part I know this has to do with my own Quaker tradition, as I understand it. And part of it also has to do with my life-long involvement in athletics where winners and losers abound. Finally, I wonder whether also want to live a spiritual life helps or only complicates the process.
I begin with my own reservations and, perhaps, anticipating what folks thought who did not even want to read about this. Winners certainly imply losers---at least in our culture. It separates people. There are winners in all corners of our culture. People who get paid more are clearly economic winners. The poor have-nots struggle to get along or, maybe even, survive.
The same is true of the whole justice system. Lady Justice may be portrayed as blind, but most of us know things like race play a role in making justice sometimes a farce. “Equal under the law” is an empty phrase in too many places. We see this in small ways, such as traffic stops of non-white drivers. And we see it on the national scale in the death of George Floyd and too many others. We may have gotten rid of slavery, but we sure have not eradicated racism. There are losers---and winners.
I have done my fair share of losing as an athlete. I was never the best and never the worst athlete. Sometimes my teams won, but truthfully, I think we probably lost more than we won. My world likely resembles the fictional place, Lake Wobegon, created by Garrison Keillor. This Lake Wobegon effect highlights the human tendency to inflate our abilities and achievements. In that place “all the children are above average!” I was above average, in my memory. But honestly, I did lose a fair amount.
At least as I felt it growing up, Quakers were uneasy with the winners-losers model. Quakers always begin with the affirmation that “there is that of God within each person.” At this level, there can be no loser. I steadfastly agreed with that---and still do. It has informed my own conviction towards working for peace, being against the death penalty and so on. I have not quibbled on that.
But when I go to an athletic match, I am ardent in rooting for my team. And I hope they score more points! There may be “that of God in every athlete on the court,” but some of them are going to come up short on points! And if my team wins, I really don’t feel too bad. Secretly, I am thrilled. I am not uneasy about that until I get philosophical and removed from the situation. And then there are all those things like spellings bees and the whole lot. Some kids truly are smarter, faster, etc.
Sometimes we face the alternative, compete or cooperate. Often that does make sense. When I think about the global stage, it makes no sense (to me) that we see nations competing for many things. There is an element about capitalism that makes me uncomfortable. I know politics can be very competitive. Too often, it is a “we choose, you lose” situation. Too often, winners don’t do a very good job of sharing and caring. I don’t think that is what most of our religious traditions had in mind.
Even spiritually, the winners-losers model can be tricky. I wonder if it is not too simplistic to say, “spiritually we are all winners?” A big part of me wants to affirm this and close the discussion. But that may be nothing more than my wish to dismiss the difficult discussion. As I read the Christian Bible, there does seem to be many stories of loss and of losers. Certainly, Adam and Eve seems to have lost something special. They were thrown out of Eden and now live East of Eden, as the great novelist John Steinbeck describes. Jacob and Esau had their issues. Judas clearly is portrayed as a loser for most Christians---even though the Romans were pleased.
I am sorry I don’t have full clarity yet. That may be disappointing or merely realistic. Right now, I am going with the latter. At the spiritual level, I believe my Quaker tradition and the Genesis creation account and say we are at our core in the image of God and are grounded in the Spirit. We are all winners in this sense. But ironically, we did nothing to win! God granted us this favor. It is by grace.
In the real world and certainly in the arbitrary world of athletics (and maybe spelling bees, etc.), there are differences. And in that arbitrary world, differences are recognized, honored, and celebrated. I am good with that. I don’t want to play games where everyone gets a trophy. And I am not sure it is good for our kids either. Somehow, I think competition can be fun, healthy and even creative.
Finally and ultimately, I hope it does not matter. Maybe the end is like the beginning. By grace we are all winners. That would be just like the loving God! It’s not a joke; it’s good news. We are all winners. We have been chosen. reative.
Finally and ultimately, I hope it does not matter. Maybe the end is like the beginning. By grace we are all winners. That would be just like the loving God! It’s not a joke; it’s good news. We are all winners. We have been chosen.
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