As I was reading the news this morning, I had this sudden “vision:”
Fifty big kids were on a playground. They’d divided themselves into two teams. The ball went back and forth and the rules were basically followed. One team lost a few times in a row and pouted a bit, but again the rules were rules and fair was fair. And the game continued.
Then the other team lost a few times. Rules were rules and fair was fair, but this second team didn’t really seem to care. Someone in the team began a bluster. Others followed suit.
Finally, one of kids on the second team bent down, stole the ball, and shouted, “I’m going home!”
The other team watched, mystified, as half of the players left the field in a huff. They looked at each other, shrugging. The teams had been dissolved and playtime was ruined.
A once happy place of growth and civility was filled with the hollow echoes of the wins and losses of the past.
Some kids never grow up.
It isn’t any different with grown ups, you have the givers and the takers, the ones who nurture and the spongs, those who play fair and those who don’t. Or in today concepts the ones who respect boundries and the boundry busters…..entitlement issues start early in life I think.
Just think this could all come from taking the ball home because you don’t like to lose.But these are just thoughts.