The World Cup and all else in perspective
The football World Cup being played in South Africa is said to be the greatest show coming every four years but with its own share of controversies and team/player scuffles.
Given the scale of the competition and the interest shown in it like no other, it is the greatest. It’s the most watched going by the sheer numbers who crowd the stadiums and stay glued to their television sets.
Everybody, or so it seems, gets into the act. Satellite transmitters, mobile phone companies, TV stations, newspapers, sports magazines, advertisers… even the kacang putih seller has a commercial on TV here in Malaysia.
Obviously his business is not small (kacang putih) to be able to afford it.
Sponsorship and TV rights bring big money, we are talking billions. Everyone in it big-time makes money, FIFA, the game’s world governing body included and we mustn’t forget the gambling syndicates, both legal and illegal.
Football is popular because everyone can play, kicking around a ball in any space. But at the sporting and professional level it takes skill, fitness, speed, strategy and creative passing to score goals – and lot’s of money to develop such abilities.
At its best the flow of passing and individual skill is delightful but there are ugly moments in tackles. Often, when the offender prays innocence to the referee it is amusing because he is not thinking of the instant replays that tell the story.
How times have changed. At top level in the leading soccer nations, the best managers and players are millionaires and that’s the draw for aspiring youngsters anywhere. For the best players there are no borders when it comes to club football. Take a look at the players in the various leagues in Europe and elsewhere. Even here.
So what do the rest of us, the spectators, get out of all this? There’s excitement and all the accompanying emotions such as elation and disappointments.
Then there are the sleepless nights and productivity and efficiency loss in the workplace.
Certainly a plus is less traffic in cities like KL while the games are being played.
There’ll be a void that won’t be easy to fill for a while when the competition ends and the ‘kaki bola’ (football fanatics) go back to their routine.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Life is about finding excitement which we equate to happiness, real or make-believe. There’s satisfaction on a daily basis for everyone who chooses to find it in whatever way we can, be it food and drink, movies, shopping, traveling, through relationships, sex or whatever else we can think of to fulfill a desire.
There was a time when there were no computers, the Internet, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, handphones, high definition broadcast and receivers. It all goes to show how time and circumstances change and are changing in a material sense.
But spiritually it’s a question mark despite the places of worship being filled or are overflowing. The human spirit has no religious tag unless we give it one, Religion is a way of life, we are often told, and in substance, at least, there’s recognition of no difference among the various denominations. What’s at the root of disagreement and disagreeable action is interpretation.
Religion can bring positive and negative emotions. It’s an individual response based on one’s nature and how one thinks and acts.
Is there a way out of negativity? There is and it’s about putting things in perspective.
If the football World Cup is the greatest show on earth compare it with the show of the unfathomable universe – the show of creation itself. How do the two shows compare? There is none because one is not even a mere speck. It’s only when we make such comparisons, especially at personal levels, that we find balance and become less inclined to think how important or how great we are. If we see ourselves as creators par excellence what about the supreme Creator? Everything is relative and there’s duality to give us a measure.
Life is about good and bad, hot-cold, sweet-bitter, happy-sad, rich-poor… We dabble in the grey areas in between making the list even more endless.
So it’s not wrong to say we human beings suffer illusions about our self-importance and worth. It takes relativity to bring us down to earth. Enjoy by all means but avoiding the excesses we are prone to is the reality we have to take on board to bring back sanity where is little or none.
So is the World Cup an illusion like any other we ought to be mindful of? The answer this way or is up to us as individuals, how we think and act with consequences.
If we want to change the world, it begins with us as individuals.
Last Updated on Monday, 05 July 2010 11:24
Tiada ulasan: