Editorial

Two Faces of an Olympic Team

Barring divine intervention, bobsled brakeman Lascelles Brown will not pair up with pilot Pierre Lueders. It’s a classic case of “Friendship” versus “Win at all cost” mentality, with the latter permeating our sports, business and entertainment.

[ Read the full article at: Toronto Star ]
Though the Olympic Games ideals are noble, we have all witnessed the shenanigans that occur behind closed doors and the doping athletes are willing to take to win that gold medal.

For the Winter Olympic Games 2010, the host Canadian Team refuses access to the site for other countries to train, giving the Canadian athletes a home team advantage. All perfectly legal, and other host countries have done the same, but boy, does this go against the spirit of the games.

[ Read the full article at: Canada.com ]

The “Winning Is Everything” mentality is taught in business schools, practised by corporations large and small, and infect our children with a sense of despair and sadness at how cruel this world can be. We see it especially in the sports events, with hockey being the prime example. A lot of the “reality” shows on TV is also based squarely on this theme. It’s a vicious cycle: the more we believe it and practice it, the more we have to expend in energy, resources and time to keep it up. You bite someone, they bite you back, and this justifies in your mind your previous action. The harder you bite, the harder they bite back, and the battle escalates.

What is the use of winning gold medals, winning in business, winning in sports… when you have no friends left? Many “successful” people have found this out too late, having lost friends, spouses and family for some stupid medal or flawed business ideal [the celebrated GE and its most famous CEO, sadly come to mind, here]. And, as the saying goes, the cemetry is full of people who once thought they were [very] important [and powerful and feared and ….]

No wonder a certain teacher said that if we want to have peace on Earth, we have to return to the mind of a child.

As beautifully expressed by Robert Fulghum in his book, “ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN”:

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don’t hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  • Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
  • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Whether Lascelles Brown wins a medal or not, he is already a winner in my book. And if he does win a medal, good for him, and no matter the color of that medal, it is always gold in the eyes of those of his friends.