An article from the Cathedral Times
by the Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler,
Dean of the Cathedral of
St. Philip
Who is number one this week? The question has become
relentless.
Political candidates, of course, and
their most committed supporters, are obsessed with the question. And
there seems to be no escape. Every day, someone is conducting, or
releasing, another type of poll. Who is number one with this group, or
that demographic, or that region?
Our media
distributors sell magazines and television shows and internet sites
because of our temptation for rankings and lists. So we have show after
show devoted to some sort of competition "”from challenging mental games
to goofy survival gimmicks. (We even have television shows about the
best television shows.) Sometimes I think that our political debates
this year have resembled television game shows.
My
former colleague at the Cathedral of St. Philip, Elizabeth Rechter, once
delivered a memorable sermon in which she lamented our culture's
obsession with lists. She did not want another article labeled "Best of
... ," she said, as if everybody, and everything, in the world were
being ranked.
Our current lust for competition can be
exhausting. It might be because our culture uses politics and sports as
the wrong sort of model, a model that is too limited. In most political
campaigns, and in most sports events, we dramatize and exalt only one
human winner. In a league, for instance, of thirty-two teams, all with
excellent players, only one team will win the final game. Thus, at the
conclusion of the Super Bowl this Sunday, one team will feel like a
loser, even though thirty other teams wish they had been there.
Competition can depress us if we believe there is only one human
winner.
Competition is truly dangerous when our
desire to win includes destroying our competitor. We have all seen that
reality. Competition can also be dangerous when it motivates theft,
lying, or cheating. We have all seen those realities, too, perhaps in
certain financial circumstances. The drive to win, at any cost, can also
drive some people to lose their humanity.
But there
are healthy elements of "competition!" In the best sense of the word, a
competitor is someone we "strive with." To compete with someone is to
strive toward a goal, with another person, not against another person.
With, not against. A true competitor brings out the best in our own
gifts and talents. Sometimes the runner will not run so fast alone as
she does when with someone, when another competitor is matching her
stride for stride.
I, for one, do not mind some of
the displays of religious faith on the athletic field year after year.
Of course, I believe some of those displays can be rude and arrogant and
condescending"”just like some religion can! But sometimes, the displays
can be reminders that no one, not one of us, is actually "number one."
If an athlete points to the sky after a touchdown, perhaps that gesture
can mean, "The real Number One is up there, not down here!" Maybe the
losing team should start pointing to the sky, too, after the score, as
if to say, "The real Number One is up there, not down
here!"
I pray for all those who strive, whether they
be candidates or athletes, bankers or business executives, even lovers
or siblings. I hope we all strive for things, and I hope we all strive
for truly good things. At their best, competitors help us to do that;
they help us to see a larger reality, a larger goal, even a common goal,
a common good. Competitors often become our best friends when we
realize how much we have in common. Competitors can also be our best
friends when they help us to see that "the real Number One" is larger
than we are.
The Very Reverend Sam Candler