Edict #4: Choose
By: Kendall Haney,
Jr. Infectious Disease Correspondent
Recently, my teacher asked me this question - Would you rather be the 12th player on an undefeated basketball team who only gets to play when the games are well out of hand...or...would you rather be a starter on an 0 - 15 team?
I remember that my first response to this question wasn’t verbal—it was reactive and emotional. Considering I’m really bad at playing basketball, or any sport, the idea of just playing sport X brought about the immediate ‘no way, I’m not playing’ knee jerk reaction. What do I care if we are winning or losing? I’ll be embarrassed regardless because people are watching. I’m sure they are all thinking great thoughts about my lack of skill. I’m sure on the car ride home they are all so glad I’m on the team.
Thinking of those parents’ faces, I wrote back to my teacher, “It’s not how you play the game, it’s how you endure it, and with whom you must endure it with.”
Interestingly, my mother coaches basketball, and as I am freakishly tall for my age, I got drafted into her all-volunteer army of ‘Hobo’ players…Hobos are the name of her team.
Hobos.
I wasn’t there on team name picking day.
On Saturday mornings I’m forced to smile and partake in basketball’s beauty. I pretend I can rebound, dribble, shoot, and pass. I honestly don’t care if we win or lose because it’s all about playing the game, right? In my opinion, it’s more important who you play the game with. They’re the people you’re stuck with on that not-so-bloody court of glory. It’s kind of hard to have fun playing anything if you don’t like the people you’re forced to enjoy a game with…a game that you weren’t all that comfortable playing in the first place.
Is basketball like the game of life? Well, that’s a whole ‘nother essay to write.
Add to all this, I’m not too much of a people person anyway. I like people, but they frequently disappoint me. Because of that alone, I just have a closer relationship with my friend, Toshiba, who never disappoints. It doesn’t argue with me, and it plays whatever I want whenever I want to. It doesn’t do anything that would make me uncomfortable. I never have to smile at it, it doesn’t ask for affection, and it doesn’t whine that I’m insensitive, ignoring it, or selfish. In fact, I’m pounding on its keys right now, and it doesn’t even complain.
Toshiba, girl, I love you.
But, I appear to be in the minority.
Since I liked this question so much, I asked a bunch of people if they wouldn’t mind sharing their answer with me. Actually, I had my awesome teachers ask their classes, and they were kind enough to help me out.
Ms. Atrash, Ms. Peacock-McLaughlin, I think you’re great. Thank you.
Now I am coming to you, my readers. This question is interesting on a lot of different levels because, when we answer it with the first thing that comes to mind, it tells us a lot about ourselves. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, really, to this question. All people are different, and all people have different preferences. Preferences don’t make you good or bad. Preferences don’t make you acceptable or not. Or, at least in my opinion, they shouldn’t.
Besides that, there are too many different ways to wax philosophical about this question. When I put it in my own words, I think to myself, “Would I rather be the leader on a failure of a team of nosepickers and whiners, trying to keep morale up by saying that this was the game they would win? Or, would I prefer to be the ignored one on an overachieving team of…winners? By the way, what makes them winners? Because they can score more points?”
See how this question can become philosophical quickly?
If the nosepickers are funny, I pick nosepickers. Yea, they might whine. But do they make me wish I hadn’t shown up? Probably not.
Maybe the way you answer tells you a little bit about yourself. Do you care more about winning, no matter what? Or is it the game and leading people, no matter the consequences, that interests you more? After all, just because you didn’t win this week, doesn’t mean you won’t win next week.
There are ups and downs with both sides of the question.
So I challenge you, my readers, to this – which would you rather be? Shout it out in the comments below, and be proud of who you are no matter what.
Choose.