“Comparison is the hidden worm that consumes in secret and
does not die at least not until it takes the life out of love” (SK, Works of Love).
Participating in recent soccer intramurals in seminary has reminded
me of something Flannery O’Connor said, “Extreme situations reveal what we are
essentially” (my paraphrase). The context of athletic competition was not at
all what O’Connor had in mind. However, perhaps it is not too far fetched to
connect her statement with soccer intramurals because in the heat of the game
we discover much about ourselves and others as tempers flare and voices grow
edgier. In some cases new friends are made, and in other cases new enemies are
made.
In competition we may discover that we are monsters.
Over the years I have done a pretty good job of competing
poorly in so far as I have frequently let my tongue get the best of me. While I
was in junior high and high school, ping-pong was a major area of competition
between my dad, my brother, and me. On several particular occasions, I remember
my brother and me growing so heated and angry at each other that we had to stop
playing. In fact we stopped playing each other all together for a long time. From
my childhood, I could provide many similar examples particularly from my years
playing soccer.
But of course athletic competition is merely one of many
sorts of competition. There is competition in academics, reality TV, employment,
and dare I say politics. The upcoming presidential election is a sort of competition.
And not least among various sorts of competition is that strange leviathan we
call capitalism. I do not intend to broaden our understanding of competition to
such a degree that it is a useless word, but I would like to point out the
propensity for competition in human relations in general.
Competition is something many people enjoy. However, many
other people seek to avoid it because either they simply do not have a taste
for it or they see how divisive it can be. Obviously, there are usually winners
and losers in competition. Winning can be exhilarating, and even losing can be
edifying. Some winners, however, do not merely get some sort of trophy at the
end; they usurp the place and even the dignity and potential for life of the
loser. To make matters worse, some of these losers were not even aware of the
competition until they had already been born into the losing team – let your
imagination run wild with regard to global politics. What then shall the
winning side do to the losing side?
Perhaps, there are some things about which competition is
potentially appropriate and healthy, while there are other things about which
competition is simply inappropriate.
A theology that says something about competition is needed
lest we continue walking a vague tightrope between the borders of love and
hate, morality and immorality.
When I started to write this blog, I intended it to be
focused on particular sorts of competition, namely those which are in controlled
environments, but as I reflected a bit more I realized that it was terribly
insufficient. My brother and I had a scuffle over ping-pong, but that is quite
trivial when compared to global politics.
What then should be a trajectory-setter for thinking about
appropriate competition and appropriate participation?
Could love be the standard for good and bad competition? Oh,
but what a lofty standard! How could that
ever be practiced in competition? Shall we concede to Ivan Karamazov who says,
“It’s possible to love one’s neighbor abstractly, even occasionally from a
distance, but hardly ever close up”?
“Love your enemies.” I imagine this probably means something
akin to not trampling the other into
the ground when such an opportunity arises.
There are many sides and dimensions to the pervading issue
of competition that I have not touched, many of which I have intentionally
omitted for lack of space and many of which I have not yet considered. Not
least among my omissions is my lack of reference to the canonical witness. Consequently,
here I am merely welcoming us to think about competition theologically because
there is such a desperate need for us to do so considering we are living in a
world so entrenched with competition. It is in the very air we breathe, and we
need to be aware of it lest it annihilate any hope of building “ecumenical,” hospitable
communities characterized by love.
A few concluding comments are in order to tie together this
smattering. First, competition is not inherently good or bad, albeit it may be
used for good or ill by those involved. Second, folks who like to think that
they have righteously avoided competition should probably reexamine themselves
and recognize their potential complicity in bad sorts of competition. Third, something
as risky as competition requires a large degree of candid accountability from
all sides; no one should be exempt from such accountability.
There is of course much more to say, but this shall suffice
for a start, however small a start this may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment