A Conclusion

I'd like to bring to an end the diatribe I began regarding my ambivalence towards sports.

Granted, we have become more civilized over the years. We have progressed past the times of the Romans and ceased to find it thrilling entertainment to watch two men brawl to the death. In medieval times, every man carried a knife, which was good thinking considering the alcohol consumption in those days was far more than it is today. Without modern sanitation, drinking the water from a pond or stream could be a risky endeavor. These days, we certainly don't hear about all the peasants who were thrown in jail immediately following the festival of St. Someone-or-Other for getting drunk and brawling with sticks.

Instead of settling our differences with fists, knives, clubs, and guns we invented the idea of sports and debate. Both of which are far superior substitutes to outright violence.

The only thing that concerns me is that occasionally our primal instincts rear their ugly head, despite all the years of so-called civilization. As many of you have been reading, the current quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick, is embroiled in a scandal regarding dog fighting. That is the most barbaric thing I have ever heard of but I know that it goes on all the time. It's a phenomenon found most in the working class.

I remember I took a trip out to Northern California once: a little town called Grass Valley. Formerly a mining town, it had disintegrated into a white trash haven full of potheads and punks who found San Francisco too expensive to afford. While I was there, I talked with a woman at a coffee shop. She had adopted a pit bull but had to have him put down. The reason being is that the dog had been trained to fight. While the dog was a puppy, he had been subjected to his former owners banging shoes loudly against a garage door. The dog had undergone other torturous, evil acts to condition him to fight. When the lady adopted him, she tried every way she could to undo the programming but had to have the dog put to sleep. After the dog totally trashed her kitchen, knocking dishes off the countertop, destroying the contents of her pantry, she realized any amount of proper care she could provide the dog was a moot point.

Regarding this process of evolution: I wonder where we are going. Two arguments are currently in vogue: one states that our technology is evolving at too fast a clip--far too quickly for our minds to be able to perceive. The other states that we are merely moving closer and closer towards telepathy. I admittedly flip-flop on this argument, much like capital punishment. There are certainly valid arguments to both points.

I conclude with one of my favorite quotes from James Thurber: It's better to know some of the questions than all the answers. May it be so.