Commentary

The raw desire

By GERMAINE SMITH, Staff Reporter

THERE IS NOTHING more satisfying than sports.

The act of losing yourself, concentrating, putting your brain and body into co-ordinated physical activity for a specific amount of time is probably one of God's greatest gift to man.

How can anyone not love sports?

From both the player's and the spectator's side, sports are good. As a player you clear your mind of everything while you play. You forget about where dinner is coming from, the nagging girlfriend, the slave-driving boss, and just about every care as you concentrate on winning. For the hour or so you are in a game, nothing else but the game matters, and this is good.

As a spectator, you get to see up close some of the most breathtaking moves made by the stars, you get anxious, you get tense, you get angry, you get elated. The roller coaster ride of emotions does not stop when you are a true sports fan.

"I can get those emotions if I watch a movie," some will argue, but it can never be the same. For one, movies are scripted, games aren't. What you see during a game comes from the raw desire of a team to beat the other, so nothing is predictable.

You see, life is complicated and sometimes you need to escape. Some choose to gulp down a few quarts of liquor to cope, others snort and/or smoke pounds of cocaine, a few eat themselves into further depression, and there are those who escape permanently with suicide.

Although playing a game of something may not make the situations in your life change, it will change your mind's reaction to it. Sports have a way of channeling away aggression, frustration, anger and a host of other emotions. Pent up feelings have a way of disappearing after an hour or two of intense sweating and concentrating.

Another plus for sports is the variety it offers the brain. Being constantly glued to magazines, books, and television can never be healthy as the brain gets too fixated on deciphering material from these media.

Sports are good, let no one fool you. If God didn't intend for us to play sports, we would know.