The following is the opinion and analysis if of the writer:
Michael A. Chihak
Do you want to laugh out loud when you hear that a sports team succeeded despite “what we went through, the adversity…”?
University of Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said that after the men’s basketball team defeated Oregon in an NCAA Tournament game March 23. Poor guy. Could his $5.25 million annual salary be causing him adversity? Hang in there, coach; you’ll get steady increases over the next four years to bring you to $6 million, whether your team wins or loses.
Similarly, for Lloyd’s players and other college athletes, how is getting a free pass to college plus branding payments for throwing, shooting, hitting or catching a ball causing them adversity?
While these guys — they mostly are men, coaches and players — wail about their hardships, many other people face real adversity. Let’s put it in perspective with a few hypothetical yet realistic scenarios that cause adversity. Situations such as these are all around us, perhaps with people we know.
- A homeless woman on the median trying to collect enough money to feed her children and perhaps have a meal for herself. Or the homeless man suffering without the medicine he needs to treat his mental illness.
- A young man waiting for the bus in the heat so he can get to class, then waiting after class to get to his job so he can pay for the class.
- The teenage girl couch surfing with one friend then another after her parents kicked her out because they can’t find the love in their hearts to accept that she is gay.
- Families who walked the length of Mexico to escape violence, only to find the U.S. border closed, bristling with military might under orders of a megalomaniac.
- A businesswoman working a 16-hour day every day because she can’t get a bank loan.
- College students holding down two jobs to pay tuition, fees and living expenses in a state whose constitution says a public education “shall be as nearly free as possible.” Sure, if you can shoot a basketball.
Those are examples of what can truly cause adversity as opposed to what our society’s overglorified athletes face.
Don’t misunderstand, please. I like sports, sometimes going to games with friends. Call me happy that Arizona beat Oregon and advanced in the tournament.
But sports and games are metaphors for life, not the other way around. They are diversions that in the big picture are minimally relevant. Yet they have become the focus of too many people and too much money, and they have taken over the realm of what is truly serious.
We need to consider and do something about what is causing adversity for the pre-med student with financial problems, homeless people, families at the border, a gay teenager whose parents ostracized her, students with two jobs, a struggling businesswoman.
As they face adversity — true adversity that they sometimes overcome and sometimes succumb to — can we offer love, kindness, compassion, a helping hand? For theirs is real, the stuff of life. We must be mindful that many around us suffer from adversity.
Let us put people with real adversity top of mind and heart. Having that perspective means we can still enjoy a basketball game and cheer for our favorites, without losing focus on what’s truly important.
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