Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
If you know nothing about me other than what you’ve read in my columns, you probably think that I’m just some guy who likes to pick on innocent athletes, coaches and teams. While that may be the case sometimes (i.e. Tim Duncan, Lane Kiffin, UNC-Asheville), I still do have a heart.
Saturday night’s Duke vs. Clemson men’s basketball game offered a great match-up between two of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s elite teams. When all was said and done, the Tigers’ sloppy play proved too much to overcome as the Blue Devils came away with the win. But I’m not going to bash Clemson for having almost as many turnovers as they did field goals, nor am I going to talk about Duke’s first conference road win. There was one thing that both teams had in common that night, something far more important than the game itself.
Players on Duke’s team wore a patches on their jerseys in support of the efforts to rebuild Haiti. Similarly Clemson’s arena had donation boxes at every entrance for fans to voluntarily make their contributions. Saturday night was not about Duke versus Clemson. It was about caring and compassion, commitment and support.
It’s times like these that remind us that life is fickle. The world we live in is unpredictable from one day to the next, and there are some natural forces that we just can’t control. If you’re like me, it reminds you that you are incredibly lucky. There is always someone in a far worse situation than yours and your life is much better than you probably realize. The next time you think your life is so difficult, think about the children in Haiti who lost their parents in the earthquake; the children who no longer have schools to go to; the children whose hospitals use vodka and hacksaws to amputate; the children who don’t even have clean water to drink.
If you learn nothing from this but the next two sentences, I’ll be happy. Do not ever take for granted how fortunate you are. Live your life with perspective. As a former collegiate athlete, living with perspective allowed me to perform at the highest level possible. Rather than complain that I had to work out at 5:45 a.m. several days a week, I learned to embrace it and see it as a gift. Something that I was able to do that most people weren’t. And the same type of mentality can be utilized by anyone no matter what kind of life you live. After all, the U.S. is one of the top 10 wealthiest countries in the world per capita, and has as many billionaires as the rest of the world combined. What do we have to complain about?
Right now the focus is on Haiti. Everyone has the ability to make some sort of contribution and every single one makes a difference, regardless of how big or small it is. Saturday night, Duke and Clemson were playing for the same team. Today, so are the rest of us.
Bangor Daily News