<\/p>\n
The gladiators stand in the tunnel surveying the crowd, awaiting their fate, hoping to have some control of the outcome.\u00a0 The crowd, that fickle crowd, will decide, in the end, the death or the glory of the gladiator.<\/p>\n
Bones crunch, heads snap, bodies bleed, when body hits body at full speed.\u00a0 The gladiator rises, again and again, to meet the onslaught of his opponent.\u00a0 Sweating, cursing his body for not doing what he thought he had trained it to do in preparation for this day, this event.\u00a0 He\u2019s done this before…fought for his life and his glory before, but today that crowd is different.\u00a0 It\u2019s not on his side today.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s known this day would come for as long as he could remember.\u00a0 As a youth he knew his ability in the games of youth set him apart, but he could see what happened to those lesser bodies that succumbed to even minor injuries.\u00a0 Thumbs down.\u00a0 His physical presence was destined to raise him above his social circumstances, but he also knew he would one day pay the price.<\/p>\n
When his tendon snapped, and his knee bent backward with the onslaught of the physical wall, he knew this would be the day he would pay that price.\u00a0 This was the thumbs down day he dreaded.\u00a0 This was the day his life, as he knew it, would end.<\/p>\n
The crowd gasped.\u00a0 The crowd applauded his lifelong effort to survive and entertain them….and then the crowd turned their thumbs down and walked away, because, in their secret heart of hearts, this was exactly what they came to see…the falling of the best of the best.\u00a0 The mighty fallen.<\/p>\n
Sound like a story of ancient Rome?\u00a0 It should, but it is also the same sad game being played out in arenas today, even though it is called something different.\u00a0 In America one of the the most violent incarnations is called Football.<\/p>\n
Football is arena war.\u00a0 Football is using the young, raising them up, and then abandoning them when they can no longer entertain.\u00a0 Too many players with identities caught up exclusively in the sport.\u00a0 Football glorifies violence, just as does the military, and says that the positive things it instills, like teamwork and discipline, supersede the foundational premise of the game.\u00a0 This is the public relations lie.\u00a0 Domination, winner vs. loser, bragging rights\u2026superiority.\u00a0 It is among the accepted ways of channeling testosterone when there is no war, and working testosterone into a frenzy of camaraderie when there is.<\/p>\n
Beyond even that, sports, like football, (I am staying with one sport, knowing there are definitely others that can be mentioned!) say to the player and the watcher that the physical is more important than the mind and spirit of that player.\u00a0 When we identify with that scenario, the scenario of only the strong survive, might makes right, outward vs. inward, we play our part in the manipulation of the world paradigm.\u00a0 This paradigm says that the strong in any way (physical, wealth, mental) are entitled to dominate, and manipulate to get what they desire.\u00a0 In fact, the thought, in some religions is just that\u2026 they are chosen by God to have that entitlement.<\/p>\n
This paradigm manipulates us into living externally\u2026the right clothes, all you can eat to the detriment of your body, bigger, better, shinier, this vodka will get you the guy\/girl, this beer is macho, this car\u2026don\u2019t stop to feel, think.\u00a0 If you did, you might not really see yourself in your own life any more.<\/p>\n
I can no longer watch games of dominance with a passive eye.\u00a0 There is room for individualism even in the win-win model.\u00a0 A person can \u201cwin\u201d by simply knowing that on this day their skill worked to give them their desired result.\u00a0 Others can know they did not lose, they merely had the opportunity to enjoy, use, and know their bodies, and the result of scoring the most points was not met.\u00a0 No shame, no dominations, but still knowing who you are as an individual even in the physical arena.<\/p>\n
Surely humanity can accept and develop games and challenges that do not require mimicking war.\u00a0 Surely we can know ourselves as strong and capable without requiring certain physical jeopardy to do so.\u00a0 Surely we, as the observers, can do so without the desire to see blood and defeat\u2026and surely we observers can extend an embrace rather than a thumbs down to those who did not meet their desired result.<\/p>\n
The new Gladiator knows that he\/she is valued for all they are.\u00a0 Valued for the perfection of body, valued for the openness of their hearts, and valued for their Spirit which knows only Love, and never even thinks about a thumbs down.\u00a0 Even when the game ends.\u00a0 Especially when the game ends.<\/p>\n
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at\u00a0<\/i>www.cwghelpingoutreach.com<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0She may be contacted at:\u00a0<\/i>Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com<\/i><\/a>.)<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The gladiators stand in the tunnel surveying the crowd, awaiting their fate, hoping to have some control of the outcome.\u00a0 The crowd, that fickle crowd, will decide, in the end, the death or the glory of the gladiator. Bones crunch, heads snap, bodies bleed, when body hits body at full speed.\u00a0 The gladiator rises, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1411],"tags":[1633,62,1630,1631,669,1241,671,1632],"class_list":["post-7928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anyone_listening","tag-body-mind-spirit","tag-cwg","tag-football","tag-gladiator","tag-therese-wilson","tag-violence-in-america","tag-wecce","tag-win-win"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7930,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions\/7930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}