Sports

It was a long day for me. I left for the movie set at 6 am and got home at 8:30 pm. I'll work tomorrow and Tuesday and that's it. I like to watch a number live sports events, that is certain sports. But the idea of sports itself is appealing to me. Non fans, many of them women just don't understand why some of us enjoy sports. So, after hearing the euphonious "Why do you waste your time watching that?" I will try to explain it a little now.
Perhaps the biggest difference between sports and other live events is that any moment the sport fan may see something transcendent, something that he or she will always remember and will relay in words to anyone else who will listen. Even a non fan can remember one of those, perhaps an Olympic record of victory " accidentally" seen on TV would b e an example of the non fan's transcendent moment. It may not mean as much to the non fan but it is memorable. The reason why? It's because sports are not scripted. So much of what we see as entertainment is part of an act, a script. The movie, TV, book, music act etc... all are pre planned events. Sports are the great mystery act, for even when we think we can predict the outcome the inevitable "upset" happens to make sports seem even more appealing and mysterious to us. There is never any way to know when those magic moments will happen, so it is best to watch as often as possible.
This works the same in every sport. I hate soccer and would not watch unless a soccer match you tied me to a seat at a soccer game. Yet, I understand the excitement that the soccer fan feels when he or she watches. There is that bond among fans that is stronger than the bonds engendered in other popular events.
Another thing that is endearing about sports is that they give us an identity. We identify with a player or team. You see it every day, people dressed in their team's logo. I never do that, as I am not one to easily trade my identity for someone else's. But I do "root" for a team and feel elation when it wins or disappointment when it doesn't. In the ME generation in which we live today, bonding with a team is nice, a painless way of giving up a tiny bit of ourselves for something bigger, even if it is just a sporting team that attracts us. Some people even have themselves buried in the team uniform. I suspect those fans are the reason the word "fanatic" was coined for people who are too rabid for the games they watch.
Sports teach us about loyalty, perseverance and honor. It gives humans a way to bond, it's cathartic, we live vicariously through the players we watch. And unlike other amusements we watch, in sports there is a winner and a loser. The winner proves deserving by the result earned on the field of play, not because a script says so. It's a way to go to war each day without anyone getting hurt. Where else in society do we so definitively know the result? I think that is reassuring because we live in a world of grays rather than black and whites, right and wrongs.
So I hail mighty sport! When I escape into a sport I can be a child again (Ok, I am one most of the time anyway) and forget the really important issues and responsibilities of life. I guess that make me and every other sport's fan winners in the most important way of all.