Why so competitive?

I have noticed a interesting thing about myself. It hit me again today as I saw the Wildcats get beat up by NC on national TV. I was bummed out!! I mean it was a few hours before I was over it. I got to thinking about that and I believe it is a part of our culture which is not all that pretty a picture. Let me explain my feelings.

I feel badly when the Broncos lose, especially when they played so badly and in fact,anytime they get beat, I feel bad. Same with the Nuggies, the Rockies, the Avs, etc. It is like part of my life is tied to the fact that the teams I root for are successful. How dumb is that? It passes quickly but the fact that I have those feelings at all is what bugs me. I have no personal stake in the matter, have nobody really involved that I know......I basically think that somehow in some small way my self worth or the fact that that I'm vicariously taking part in these games and so when they get beat, I get beat. It is a phenomena that takes a hold of whole cities and states who are so closely tied to their sports team. (i.e. Nebraska, Notre Dame, Texas, etc.) Riots occur and people go bananas if their teams loses sometimes. You have to look no further than soccer riots in Europe after a loss to see the psychology that takes over at times. It is like if their team loses they feel worthless themselves adn they lose all sense of perspective. So, my conclusion is that it comes down to our competitive natures as humans to a degree. We must win or somehow we are less of a person or city or country. By winning we prove ourselves better competitively and thus in our minds we are better human beings. While we have good hard competition around it seems less and less that we enjoy the competition as much as we do crushing the competition.

Competition is good in life. It is what drives our captialistic system. It rewards risk, enterpenurship, innovation and many other positive things. It doesn't in itself do anything but drive us to be better than the other guy in the business world or die. It is a good thing in that sense. I promotes our life style and standard of living. I have no problem with competition in that sense.

But the drive to always have to beat some one to somehow validate your own self worth in the sports sense is not a good thing. Who of us really likes to watch a game just because it is a good game. If we don't have a horse in the race, we are not that interested in watching it if truth be told. (I'm speaking for me, here) Why not enjoy the game just because of the game, not who's playing or who actually wins the game? Interesting psychology there I think.

It is interesting in our family as those of us who have played sports kind of have this ingrained in our DNA about winning and striving to do your best to crush your opponent. It is reflected in our lives in the way we always want to play a game or have a competition in almost any situation. (aka Manliest Man contest at the Ranch) I know that some of the girls are a bit uncomfortable with the way we Foster men always want to win at whatever it is we do. I truly think it is very good natured and lots of fun, but I am curious what drives us to do that all the time. I'm not suggesting we change our basic make up, but I'm saying lets be aware of it and that others might not feel the same way about things. We certainly don't want to hurt anyones feelings about competiting for anything.

I for one pledge to no longer want to win at anything. I have been crushed so many times that I no longer have any self worth. I'm no longer the free throw champ, no longer rein as the Boggle champ, and certainly am far down on the list of ping pong players in the fam. I basically am a worthless human being.

So the next time we meet in the middle of the ring, don't expect me to say "I, will crush you!!" I will merely turn the other cheek and let you smack me around like a cat playing with catnip. (I'm the catnip)

At least I have MacGyver to kick around!! I can beat him at anything except running in perfect concentric circles to the left only!!

Dad

A Post from a lonely man!!

I am typing this from my hotel room in Jacksonville, Fl. I have been here since Sunday attending our national sales meeting. It is a long week filled with meetings (to talk about how we did and to talk about what the next year's goals are.) I have been coming to these things for 20 some odd years and while it is kind of fun to get away for awhile, I have to say the appeal is wearing off a bit.

Usually we start them on a Friday and work over the weekend. (a European idea, I guess) This year was different and I like it much better. We started on Tuesday and will end tomorrow. I had to come in on Sunday as I had a customer who came to a meeting where he presented a talk to a group of other customers and ABB people. Anyway, it is almost over.

I don't like being away from home for lots of reasons, not the least of which is I miss Mom and Meggie when I am gone so long. These meetings are a lot of mingling, networking and plain old chit-chatting at the dinners and receptions and all. It gets old. I like to visit with some of my old friends, but every year there are fewer and fewer as they are all starting to retire. Ron West (a.k "Thunder Tonque") was one of the top 7 people this year.....he sold over $52 million in equipment. (I sold just over $10 million to put that in perspective and I had a great year) Most of the folks drink a lot and after awhile I just leave as it isn't that much fun to talk to drunk people, even if they are good friends. Overall, it is a good experience but I won't miss it all that much when it ends for me.

The weather here has been lousy. You come to Florida and you think it is going to be nice. It has rained all week to where we couldn't even go out and just today (Thursday) it turned nice on us and the sun came out and it was really, really lovely. Now I have to go back to Denver and face the music with all the snow. (That is called reality!!)

I am so glad to see some of you continue to post on a fairly regular basis. I have several things I have thought about to put on my Blog but just don't seem to get around to it. I will get better and so let the pontificating begin on my next post.

I love you all.
Dad