Monday morning, it’s the start of the week and you’ve got a nice warm glow following the weekend’s sporting success.
It’s strange that something over which we have no control can influence our mood and general demeanour and to somebody with no interest in sport it all must appear quite baffling. Sports fans and journalists alike often use warlike terms like battle and struggle to describe what they have witnessed on the playing field and somebody once described sport as war without the fatalities; an interesting analogy. I recently visited the second world war cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand close to the famous bridge over the River Kwai where nearly 7,000 allied soldiers are buried. Such visits are both moving and humbling and the visitor cannot fail to be left with a true sense of perspective of the realities of his or her own life.
It’s strange that something over which we have no control can influence our mood and general demeanour and to somebody with no interest in sport it all must appear quite baffling. Sports fans and journalists alike often use warlike terms like battle and struggle to describe what they have witnessed on the playing field and somebody once described sport as war without the fatalities; an interesting analogy. I recently visited the second world war cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand close to the famous bridge over the River Kwai where nearly 7,000 allied soldiers are buried. Such visits are both moving and humbling and the visitor cannot fail to be left with a true sense of perspective of the realities of his or her own life.
Sport, on the other hand, for all its aggression and occasional violence is nothing more than a recreational activity providing us with an escape from the reality of our often humdrum lives. Although it has the ability to move both participant and spectator alike, portraying as it does the exuberance of life and competition, it is not war. At times it can appear to be the most important thing in life and even a matter of life and death, as Bill Shankly once said, but when all is said and done it is only a game.
Still, having said all that the sweet taste of victory lingers long in the mouth particularly when, against all the odds, your national team has emerged triumphant over its bitter rivals!
Common Sense 