in praise of...participation

You may have heard about a certain event that’s happening this year here in London.  I believe it’s called the Olympics.

This is an event that features the best athletes in the world.  Am I impressed?   Not really.

Maybe it’s an age thing.  I’m find myself not caring about who’s best anymore.  Is it important?

It’s the same in football – lots of money is being poured into this area but only 1% of the population are actually playing the game.  What’s happened to the spirit of participation?  Are sports becoming an arena only for the best, i.e. the professionals who are making money and amateurs who make it to major competitions?

I find that this spirit is lurking in the arts as well.  This idea of being good.   It’s a difficult debate: yes, on one side there’s a quest for achievement and accuracy but on the other hand, there is also the joy of doing.  There is the ethic to encourage people to do art even if they are at the beginning stages or don’t seem to have “skill.”

 Are we encouraging participation just for the love of it?  There’s so much to be gained from sport and art even if the mind says we’re not good at them!  Art is too much fun not to do!  And sport – there is no better way to keep in shape and keep healthy.

There’s always going to be a wide range of accomplishment but in our society there is an over-emphasis on achievement rather than participation.  Certainly more people would benefit if there was an emphasis on participation rather than achievement. 

The human ego is impressed with competition and who’s better than who, with winning, titles and awards.  The human spirit just wants to participate, to experience the joy of doing.  Until we learn what’s clearly more important, the activities that should belong to all of us will continue to be dominated by the very few.