A lot (most?)
of our kids are never going to be champions, may never finish anywhere
near the top, so why do they do this (swim), or play violin, or
soccer/football/other sports, etc.? Vonnegut's answer is pure "gold".
What
do we develop, the Athlete? In part, but no. We develop the Person and
prepare them for Life. We, as a group, understand and know this,
absolutely. Some kids and parents don't. We each should figure out our
own way to share and instill that understanding.
But also keep the fire lit and the blade ever sharpened.
Just my opinion.
*******************
By Kurt Vonnegut:
- Kurt Vonnegut
When
I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was
talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and
he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young
people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject?
And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I
play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”
And
he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely
blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before:
“I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think
you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”
And
that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone
who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did
things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an
achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”
