I find the variability of people amazing. We should celebrate it. Yet, we as a society are always trying to make sense of our collective lives by categorizing people and experiences. This is a useful tool. But every tool has a downside. If you don’t fall neatly into society’s categories, it can be painful.
I feel organized sports is a doubled edged sword. It can be an amazing experience for some and misery for others. When I set out to make this piece, I almost felt like I was saying something taboo with this work. You can’t speak poorly of something that gives so many people purpose, direction, and pleasure. Well for some, it didn’t and it doesn’t.
I feel organized sports is a doubled edged sword. It can be an amazing experience for some and misery for others. When I set out to make this piece, I almost felt like I was saying something taboo with this work. You can’t speak poorly of something that gives so many people purpose, direction, and pleasure. Well for some, it didn’t and it doesn’t.
Ironically, I have wonderful memories of playing pick-up baseball and football games in the yards and fields of my neighborhood. It’s the “organized” aspect that kills sports for me. Because, in the end, your life at those moments is being organized by something that has very little interest in you as a whole person. If you’re not very talented at that particular sport, you quickly realize you don’t fit in. If you are lucky enough to have a great coach, he will finesse the situation and work hard to make sure everyone plays and enjoys the experience (even you). But in the end, you know.
But let’s be honest. In organized sports, 95% percent of the time it is about winning. Rarely does a player walk away from a losing game happy with the progress they have made that day. They just know that they have lost. The “process” of learning a sport is dwarfed by the categories of winners and losers. I enjoyed neighborhood games simply because we just played.
This piece is honestly not meant to be negative. It is really a celebration of the variability of the human experience and how we honestly express ourselves as we experience life. So yes, I hate organized sports. But I also found other things I love.
But let’s be honest. In organized sports, 95% percent of the time it is about winning. Rarely does a player walk away from a losing game happy with the progress they have made that day. They just know that they have lost. The “process” of learning a sport is dwarfed by the categories of winners and losers. I enjoyed neighborhood games simply because we just played.
This piece is honestly not meant to be negative. It is really a celebration of the variability of the human experience and how we honestly express ourselves as we experience life. So yes, I hate organized sports. But I also found other things I love.
Header art by T. Guzzio. Original photo by M. Lavan.
CONNECT WITH ED:
Ed Schutte is a Boston based artist, living in Salem, Massachusetts. He has recently shifted from traditional media to digital. Using an iPhone, iPad, Adobe illustrator, and Photoshop, he collects textures and palettes from his surroundings and manipulates them within the context of images he creates. He has exhibited in Salem, Boston and New York. His work is available for purchase through Society 6 and Saatchi Art. You can also keep up with Ed via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, through his blog, Wandering the Continuum. His website is at www.edschutte.com.
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