Blogging in 2011... I don't understand the fascination...

I was going to blog on January 1 to start 2011 out, but never got around to it, so here we are two days into the New Year, so I decided to blog about something I don't understand. Well, the possibilties there are endless :-) - but this is about America's fascination with sports. I really don't understand it. Not even a little bit.

I will admit I am strongly biased against sports. I was picked on a lot in school and bullied mostly because I was so bad at sports. I am still affected by that to this day.  And since I went to a small Christian school, I was forced to play whatever sport was the craze of the season. Looking back, that seems so wrong and unfair. But that is beside the point.

I like soccer. It is the only sport I excelled at, and the only one where the other kids wanted me on their team. Unfortunately, it wasn't popular in school.

Softball was ok after I got out of school and got ok at it. Until that fateful day fourteen years ago that led to my selling my ball glove and vowing I would never play again - and I haven't.

Football.... I never liked it. I think a lot of the problem was I had no clue how to play it - seemed like a stupid game (still does!) - I was forced to play it for gym class, and by the time I half understood the game, I already had a deep-seated hatred of the game.

I get why people like to play sports - even though the very word conjures up bad memories for me - especially football - but what I don't get, not even 1%, is the fascination with professional sports. People will stand in line in all kinds of weather to get tickets, will act like total idiots rooting for their team, and act like it is the end of the world if they lose.

Why? They don't personally know any of the players, and if they passed Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady on the street, th guys wouldn't give them the time of day. These guys get played obscene amounts of money for playing a game - because people will play to see them chase a ball around a field. And why? Why does a bunch of guys you don't know chasing a ball make a difference in your life? It sure doesn't make a difference in mine - other than the fact that I root for the opposite team because I get so tired of hearing about it. Bad of me, but oh well. :-)

Sports has been called the god of America, and whoever said that could be correct. There is nothing wrong in playing sports, but there is in the addiction people have with it and the professional teams. There is also something wrong with it in that all too often men and boys are judged by their performance in how manly or masculine they are, and how popular they are.

As I said, I am biased, but if you look down on someone - or worse, bully them, because they aren't good at or like sports - then that is a sad commentary on you and your life.

Everyone has their interests - mine are reading and music. Every year, some of the music groups I listen to are up for awards - favorite song, favorite group, etc. I usually read the results somewhere on line after the fact, but I don't lose any sleep over it, and I don't even get that excited about it. Even when my favorite group gets most of the awards. Good for them, but I'm not going to throw a party over it. :-)

Sports lovers may hate me for this, but hey if you're a Christian you gotta love me and forgive me - but if the Christians who are so into sports put half of that energy and interest into God's work, only God knows what could be accomplished.

I'm not married and have no kids - and never will, but if I did, they would be allowed to play sports - even the cursed football, but I would curb the professional sports interest. Most of the men are immoral guys who no one should want their kids looking at as a role model. They alll too often desecrate the Sabbath by playing on Sunday,  drink, smoke, live immorally, and it seems a lot of them do drugs - yet even Christians follow them like a little puppy dog - and what for?

In the end, this is a free country - and I am thankful for that. So sports lovers are free to post on facebook about their favorite team winning or losing, and doing all the other things they like to do - but people like me also have the right to dislike sports and also make that known. So I have. :-)

Now I have to run. There is a quilting bee on TV I have to watch. I really get into how they stitch those things together, and my favorite group of quilters is up next!