Decisions, Decisions
This sunday World Cup comes to an end, and with it the meaning that life had since July 9th. What's the lesson from Argentina's defeat in quarterfinals? The main lesson is that in World Cup, as in life, the key issue is not whether you're going to win, but rather how you're going to lose. Winning a World Cup is a close to impossible task, and one, moreover, in which luck and accident - the draw, injuries, referi mistakes, and a whole host of other factors - plays a role in determining the outcome. Focusing on how you're going to lose liberates from the obsession with the end result, and allows the focus to fall on what really matters, the choices you make.
In his "Existentialism is a Humanism" Sartre says that in the absence of God we alone determine who we are. Think of it this way: Before building a table, a carpenter has a mental picture of what the table would look like. In the same way, God, before making human beings had a picture of what we'd be like. That picture is our essence, our existence comes afterwards. But if God doesn't exist, then all we have is existence, and in the process of existing, in the course of the actions and decisions we take or don't take, we make our essence. In the absence of God only our lives determine who we are. In determining who we are, however, we also determine who human beings should be. In choosing for ourselves, we choose for all of humanity - in defining ourselves, we define humankind.
So how are you going to lose? Are you going to lose with your best players on the field at the end of the game? Are you going to lose having defended a 1-0 advantage by playing the way that gave you the goal or by giving up the ball and the field? Are you going to lose having made substitutions geared toward grabbing victory, or geared towards avoiding defeat?
How you answer these questions determines who you are, and how you think the game should be played. Given luck and accident, all we can do is answer them. It's not given to us to achieve victory - only to deserve it.
posted by elivo at 3:40 PM
7 Comments:
Los Argentinos demostraron ser pesimos perdedores,preciso de la imagen de cultura pedante que algunos pocos Argies han logrado posicionar en el mundo. Asi mismo, Zidane y Rooney demostraron ser unos barbaros!
Son asi los Argentinos?
Great Post! At least some interesting thoughts came out of Argentina's loss. Although a cliche, it is true that it is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Perhaps when telling us this as children our parents were attempting to teach us how to answer such questions (or at least the importance of such questions)... or perhaps they were just teaching us not to be sore losers. ;-)
i was always awed and inspired by my high school french teacher's wholesome and optimistic interpretation of sartre's 'huis clos.' nice to see you come to the same conclusions about his existentialism.
Results do matter.
You have to have an amazing time while playing without feeling anxious about the outcome.
Me parece que lo que le paso a Pekerman y su equipo fue similar, aunque inverso en su resultado, a lo que sucedio con el prof. de tenis en la pelicula Match Point. Si al Pato no le hubieran dado esa paralitica, Messi entraba y hubiese vuelto loco a los alemanes. Pero shit happens, uno nunca sabe cuando shit is going to hit the fan. Aguante Pekerman, el Pato, Agüerito y por supuesto, Saviola.
more of these...
lc
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