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Along Life’s Way
Competition
By Lois E. Wilson
Do you enjoy competition? I do. It is the competition among
participants that draws me to certain TV shows. Whether it is quiz,
spelling bees, designing, cooking, music, sports, or another type show
wherein people are vying to have the best product or highest score—I
watch them. Fie on the soap operas and sitcoms!
This preference of mine may spring from my background in the visual
arts. Studying or producing them usually involves a problem to be
solved. How one approaches the solution is a personal decision which
can result in a win or loss for the contestant. Henry J. Kaiser said,
“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”
Russell Baker observed, “In America, it is sport that is the opiate of
the masses.” Orwell called sports “war minus the shooting.” COVID-19
has made some of us realize how much we relaxed from the cares of the
world by watching our favorite teams or sports’ personalities battle it
out for a win.
Many television channels have tried to ease our anxiety over lack of
current sports by providing reruns of events from prior-year
competitions. That’s no good for me; if didn’t see them at the time, I
probably know the winner which kills the anticipation.
Now, if you are viewing some live airings, the competitors may be
sequestered or performing from different locations. This eliminates
face-to face challenges. For health safety, this is appropriate—but it
does diminish the atmosphere. No “Rah-Rahs” there.
Since it has been almost impossible to find real-time sports—to
experience “newness,” I have expanded my sports viewing to events I had
not seen before. I didn’t realize how many types of competition exist.
Yes, there are more than OSU football games.
Over the last couple of months, I have watched: log rolling, the
World’s strongest man, American Ninja warriors, Olympic Games, bowling,
cornhole tossing, cherry pit spitting, horse racing, and World Poker
competitions. Most of these were also reruns.
All you women who wish to compete at the level of men in sports should
try NASCAR or the World Poker Tour. After WPT’s 15 years, in 2017, Ema
Zajmovic of Montreal was the first woman to win a main event. For me,
these restricted choices of sports have not been “hair-raising.”
However, they have been “chair-raising.” I find that during them
I get up from my chair much more frequently to go to the kitchen and
refill my plate with snacks. Alas, that means they’ll probably be
“scale-raising” too!
Meanwhile, I am cheering for the teams working on solving the COVID-19 crisis. May they soon have the “Big Win!”
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