I have decided to
branch out a little, and write a social commentary post today. I have quite a few more pressing things to
get done today, but there is a thought that has been nagging me all morning, so
I decided to write this allowing me focus on my other more pressing matters for
the rest of the day today…
I was watching the
CBS Early Show this morning for a little while, and they did a story on a guy,
who was standing next to Bill Gates in a school picture from back in a
day. Apparently said gentleman had been
made fun of on one of the late night shows last night for looking kind of
funny in the picture. In defense of the late night shows…. It was not a
very charming picture, but we all have those.
The Early Show then decided to track down the guy, and see what had
become of him. The gentleman, I don’t
recall his name, and in reality that is not important, had grown up to become a
violinist, and an avid collector of license plates from around the world. He has been decorating his garage with them. One of the anchors then said “BUT before you
think LOSER I want you to know that he has an eight car garage….” It was said using the tone of voice one uses
after winning a friendly game of WII bowling or something similar. It kind stopped me dead in my track. I have never liked the term LOSER, it has
such a negative connotation to it, and the thought of a seemingly professional
morning show anchor choosing to use such a derogative term about another person
only to “redeem” the person by pointing out that he/she has an eight car garage
made me feel extremely uncomfortable.
I have spent the
morning trying to figure out what a loser is, and have been unable to come up with
a sufficient answer other than as a society we define winners and losers based
on our monetary and material wealth…. If
that is truly the case, I know that I am a LOSER, as are most of my friends,
and I am totally fine with that….
Right now, we are
raising our kids not to be losers, and we teach them that losing is bad and
winning is good. But the truth is that
in life there are always winners and losers, and by giving every child in a
baseball tournament a trophy regardless of whether they won or lost, I think
that we are creating a society of false winners. I am not saying that the teams that did not
win the tournament should be called losers, not at all, but I am saying that it
is OK to acknowledge the winning team while at the same time commending the
other teams for being a part of the tournament.
Becoming a well-rounded human being, to me, requires learning both how
to win and how to lose…. If we continuously protect our children from the pain
of losing, they will never learn how to fight for what they want or need in life;
they will just expect it to be handed to them.
I would never consider a child a loser, and I think that losses are just
as important as victories…
However, once we grow
up, things suddenly change from all of us being winners to a societal division
of winners and losers into two categories.
The haves and the have nots….Would I want to be rich? Yes, of course I would, it would solve a lot
of problems, however, would I want to become rich at the expense of
others? Not in a million years… So I
find it despicable that an anchor on a morning show takes the liberty of labeling
someone a loser until the mention of his/her financial and material wealth. Before the loser comment I thought that the
fact that the guys was a violinist with a passion for collecting license plates
was pretty neat, it showed me passion….. And can a passionate person ever
really be a loser????? I think that every day you get out of bed and take on
life doing something, anything, you are passionate about makes you a winner….Every
day you don’t go to bed hungry or cold makes you a winner, you survived…. Does
that mean we shouldn’t strive to do better?
No, absolutely not, all of us can always do better, but some days just
making it through is good enough.
I am going to take a
slight turn away from the so-called definition of what a winner is seen with
the eyes of society. Yesterday, someone
posted the following link on Facebook Disney
Guides . In short, it is an article
from the New York Post, describing how some rich (winners) New York moms hire
tour guides with disabilities to gain faster and easier access to the rides at
Disney. Disney, allows a person with a
disability, easier access to the rides with significantly shorter wait times
than people without disabilities. Each
person with a disability is allowed to bring up to six friends or family
members along on the ride. Initially I
thought it was kind of odd that they allow a person with a disability to bring
that many guests along, but after thinking about it for a moment I realized that
it is so that you don’t have to go on the ride alone. Disney is supposed to be a family experience,
so I commend Disney for that. However, I
found it distasteful that these New York winners, will resort to such
practices, and honestly, I also find it offensive, that a person with a disability
will prostitute him/herself in that manner.
I would happily wait in the line as it would mean that I no longer have
my disability. Before getting onto a
tangent about having these winners walk (or waddle) in my shoes for a day, I
just want to throw out a question: What
is a winner? What is a loser?
To all my wonderful
losers out there: You all inspire me
every day, and in my book you are all winners….but who I am to label anyone a
winner when I am but a (proud) loser myself…
Peace
P
PS If anyone wants to pay scootie and me $130/hour under the table to go to Disney I am up for it. I will even throw in a little drool and put on a Goofy Costume (wouldn’t want to be recognized) at no extra cost… My “code name” will be Hyp O’Crite, and you can reach me at 1-800-666-5673.
Contact email keepinghopejourney@gmail.com
