Friday 18 May, 2007

Sports that direct us to kill: Why can't we accept failure?

Sporting events are designed to impart a sense of healthy competition and aim at physical development of the players. It also teaches the fans to take both wins and losses with equal fervour. Sports are an excellent tool for overall development since they teach a whole lot of values through their intended fun and frolic.
Rigorous planning and intense pressure goes into the preparation of a single match which brings a few minutes of excitement and amusement. Apart from this, the amount of resources and money involved as well as the prestige issue associated with some serious sports make it all the more intense, eroding the actual purpose of game. So much so that people are even ready to kill each other if things don't go according to their plan.
The recent murder of Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer speaks volumes for itself.
The outward and violent expressions of rage and grief on our country's loss in cricket and the burning of effigies of the same players we once worshipped are all examples of how fickle we are and how much we abhor failure.
The question to be asked here is 'why have become so intolerant'? Not only as country but as a whole race of people, we have lost all tolerance and forbearance. We are not ready to accept failure as sportingly as we should. If we cannot be sporty enough in accepting failure in sports, we can just imagine about the kind of acceptance we would show in other spheres of our lives. It, perhaps, gets programmed in our heads right at a very tender age when we are taught a kind of repulsion to the word 'failure'. We should teach our kids that failing is just about knowing how a certain thing is not supposed to be done and not about the inability to do it.
Dealing with children who do not perform academically up to a desired level has to be met with a complete revision. It should be our aim to help children learn from their failures instead of developing a fear towards it. Once this fear is gone, we would see a change in a whole lot of aspects of our lives where we'd be more tolerant and willing to learn from our mistakes instead of blaming ourselves or others for it.
Oxygen... a movement view

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