Ever wonder why everyone must get a trophy? I think I found out. This will bake your cookie. It came to me as I was listening to Wayne Dyer on YouTube. Here is what I came up with.
Wayne got rid of all his trophies, awards, memorabilia, etc. to begin a new walk. Then, I remembered, in the Bible, that Jesus told his disciples to give up everything they had to follow him. In both cases, tying ourselves to the past through our collections and icons of glory keeps us from greater consciousness and a higher vibration in the present. LIVING IN THE PRESENT is the thing.
We make excuses for holding onto our past as if our age determines our worth, and our youth was spent and without the evidence of trophies is now, somehow gone. How did we get into trophy mode in the first place?How far back can we trace the race for hardware? To me, at least… the Olympics comes to mind. The Greeks began the contests and then the Roman Empires, which peaked around 98AD, presided over Olympic games. The Coliseum of Rome became the home of all added Circus in progressive regularity – serving alcohol to numb the minds of the bloodthirsty spectators, who were most inclined to revolt.
The modern Olympic games date back to 1896, reintroduced after an absence of a millennia and a half. Why? What happened that something necessary during the Roman Empire was not necessary for the next 1,500 years, only to be necessary in modern times?
My educated guess is that the Olympics are used by empires in need of them. Introduced at a peak and added to in decline to draw and pit maximum viewership, one against the other, along racial and national lines. Empires need cover for the business of enriching the powerful. Therefore, the ‘powerful’, needed to distract their populations while they rob them daily through usury and debasement of their currencies. Sound familiar?
“Give the people BREAD AND CIRCUS, and they will never revolt.”
– attributed to the Poet, Juvenal (55AD to 128AD)
We could argue the same dynamic is underway today. The insidiousness of the rollout of Tennis, Golf, Soccer, Fencing, Badminton, etc., and don’t forget the Winter Olympics’ Luge, Bobsled, and Curling! draw in hundreds of millions of potential viewers while having no practical value at all. In my view, that’s kind of the point.
By multiplying the offerings of “qualified” Olympic sports, they (reign) in millions more kids to undertake a life of Curling. Competitions are devised that offer them all trophies for being ordinary. A years-long path to a payoff uses up their formative years better spent studying Civics, Latin, Math, and Science. Kids grow up pursuing trophies in the world instead of solutions for the world.
Modern emperors couldn’t get enough children to the finish line first, so they decided to bring the finish line to each, individual child. What better way to indoctrinate the children, not into believing they are the best or came in first, no. It was to use trophies to hook them on their past and keep them looking backwards. And that maybe then, their contributions to the present and hope for a future might pale by comparison. If true, they are demoralizing and shaming our entire population, by hook or crook, into submission to the celebrated… the celebrity class… the “Influencers”.
The powerful can turn anyone with an attitude and the ability to play a few chords on a guitar into an idol to worship. Taylor Swift is the best modern example. Please understand this is not an offensive on Taylor Swift. She’s lovely. But, she has no discernable talent other than being pretty and that which is retroactively attributed to her celebrity. If you’ve heard her without the benefit of “Autotune” you know it’s true. Her fans would say, “Well if she’s so untalented, why is she so famous and rich?” I would respond, “Because your parents weren’t paying attention while Taylor’s corporate promoters were stealing your brain.”
And, then there’s golf. The PGA Junior Leage, Operation 36, and whatever program is next, keep on coming under the auspices of “Growing the Game”. On its face, these are noble enterprises. After all, golf is fun. However, when the programs are taken from the golf professionals who devise them and made worldwide initiatives by a self-serving corporate dynamic, money becomes the lynchpin of something far more destructive to our social fabric.
Parents are tricked into spending money to have their children play an ‘outdoor, healthy, wholesome game’ while readying the trophies for tens of thousands more children than would otherwise win them. Then, by repeating the dynamic enough times for enough years, you have entire families paying into a system designed not to instill self-worth and life goal-achievement into our kids. But, rather, to flood our world with athletic supporters instead of architects, midfielders instead of medics, and Esports(mixed-reality) gamers instead of engineers. The First Tee Program is the only exception I know of (Props to Jack Barrett of the South Florida First Tee). We do it because in our current world, we have allowed celebrity to matter more than conscience.
Truly this must be the end of the American Empire. I mean, really. The intellectually insulting ridiculousness of every next ‘big’ thing is so extreme, it makes me kida sick to my stomach. Are you aware of shows called ‘The Masked Singer’ and ‘Deal or No Deal Island’? O.M.G! Do people really watch that pap? I equate it to a sick kind of anticipation, like readying yourself for a public flogging. You watch just to have the public assurance that you are not participating – never realizing that our present and future are taking the lash instead of our bodies.
Here is my solution for parent and pip-squeak alike…. Stop participating in celebrity of any kind. Stop asking for autographs and high-fives, fist-bumps, and sweat-soaked towels and gloves. Don’t let your kids have their own phone. No more joining. Individualize competition. Understand integrity and demand it in everyone and everything – especially in exchange for dollars spent.
Frame your sporting activities as opportunities to test physical and mental toughness instead of pursuing professional status. Besides, only rich kids, who would never otherwise have to work a day in their lives, are free enough to pursue icons of glory. There are no poor kids on the PGA Tour.
John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy
Lee Trevino Recommends a Flatter Swing