Today we were up North to watch one of our grandsons play in a basketball tournament. We had our granddaughter with us while my son, a Green Bay police officer, worked the Green Bay Packers game and my daughter-in-law and oldest grandson attended the game. Naturally there was a big screen TV in the cafeteria outside the gym so we could watch the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants playoff football game before, during and in between basketball games. My grandson’s basketball team won one game and lost one game while the Green Bay Packers lost one game and are out of the run for the Super Bowl game.
Much of our lives is about winning or losing and although we say be a gracious loser, Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers is reported to say “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”.
In War wining is the only thing. Although we clearly lost the war in Vietnam to the Vietnamese people our government does not admit to losing and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where again we are fighting the people in their own country. we still find ways to deny we are losing. Waging war in another people’s own country, in my opinion, is not winnable. The true character and spirit will ultimately triumph.
Today, January 15th, is the anniversary of my dad’s birthday and that of Martin Luther King Jr. In my dad’s life and that of King’s there is not much talk of winning or losing. The nonviolence of King was not to defeat anyone but to struggle for truth and justice even when that meant taking on the suffering and repression of others for speaking and acting the “right thing to say and do”. King is now honored and respected but he suffered a great deal in his life especially the last few years when he was rejected even by some of his own friends and companions.
My dad’s whole life was devoted to his family, wife and children. He worked hard for us even to the neglect of his own concerns and interest. He died from the worst disease possible a hard working talented men of labor could face, Alzheimer’s. He went from a man who could fix or build almost anything to a person who could not remember how to start a lawnmower.
Great men, true to their beliefs and selves, suffer greatly. A few, like King or Gandhi are recognized and honored after death although many that praise and honor them do not follow their ways. Some, like my dad, live quiet and simple lives and are never publicly recognized for being who they are. But both King and my Dad saw their life as not winning or losing. Life was something to be embraced and lived fully as best we can.
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