Healthy Competition?

 It started early, this healthy competition. Looking for the best, the top, the fastest, the smartest. Our schools and our culture promoting competition in order to inspire us to be our best, to reach for the stars, to be number one. 

In elementary school there were SRA reading levels based on reading short passages and filling in answers to a number of comprehension questions. If you did that well, you were moved up in color, always working toward the gold. If you were not a good reader you hung out in the marshy green or tawny taupe areas. The chart was hung on the classroom wall so you could be frequently reminded of where you fell within the ranking of your class. It wasn’t about the love of reading, or the sheer joy of learning-it was about reaching the top, being the best and the brightest.

There were president’s awards for the best in athletics, there were art awards, music awards, you name it, there were ‘best’ awards for just about everything, even the cutest baby. In high school academics there was the much-coveted honor society in which your grade point average measured your academic value.

There were team sports which seemed to capture and hold the energy of the school, and cheers that summoned the attitude of “we’re the best, better than all the rest.” This encouraged school ‘spirit’ but in my day it also seemed to lead to a ‘them against us’ attitude with regard to neighboring towns and opposing teams. There never seemed to be a time that we were encouraged to embrace the classmates that lived nearby. There were no opportunities to mingle and meet them and share ideas. They were our rivals and seemed a million miles away literally and figuratively. Some of these ‘healthy competitions’ led to overzealous matches where security had to be alerted. Shouts of ‘we’re number one’, shaming and scorning- all part of a little ‘healthy competition’. Was it ever suggested that we ‘love our neighbor’ or at least get to know them?

There will be a million parents who profess allegiance to this ‘healthy competition’, who see its value as they shout from the stands and argue with the umpires. They see competition as a healthy ingredient of life-a gold standard, a necessary step towards greatness. And then there are those that responded by implementing the much controversial- ‘give everyone a trophy’ practice, which in the mind of many-leads to sublime mediocrity. Perhaps we don’t all have to be winners.

When I played high school team sports there were entire seasons in which my field hockey team never scored a single goal, but it didn’t seem to diminish the value of being on that team, working together, being outdoors, singing on the bus. We didn’t need a “we’re number one” attitude in order to benefit from working together.

I vividly remember sitting in Mr. Petras’s history class, learning about the great wars and conflicts throughout time, and looking at the political map of the world with all of the borders boldly outlining the many different countries. I believe I raised my hand and asked, ‘why do we need these borders, why can’t we all just get along?’

We grew up at a time where we were taught that being the ‘best’ was most important. The best town, the best country, the best nationality, the best food, the prettiest, the smartest, the most talented, the most clever. Our culture is flooded with competitions and pageants looking quite literally for the top dog. And yet we’re seeing these young professional athletes breaking down from the pressure of being the best-endorsements, media shaming, hearts breaking.  

It has been my thought that all of this has led to a world of ‘unhealthy competition’-instead of promoting ‘love of neighbor’ we have promoted outscore our neighbor, be the best, be a winner. 

It is OK to love our country and other countries too-it’s OK to be good at tennis without having to be the best, it is OK to be a slow reader as long as you enjoy it. Seeing ourselves in others, realizing we are all equal parts of this one glorious world will be, I am sure, the only way to world peace.

Thankfully, things may be changing a bit as neighboring schools are coming together to share sports teams and learning opportunities. Where we are learning to work with each other rather than against each other. Where the arts are being encouraged and supported as a vital part of our existence. Where we are celebrating the individual while identifying that we are all part of the whole. There are organizations and clubs within the schools that now work for and encourage all types of community service-there are students going on to study and protect the environment, the oppressed, those in need. It is a visceral shift- a leap toward goodness.  

Sure, I’ll will most likely be there to watch the Superbowl, to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at the end of the Community Band concert, to cheer on my local team, but I know in the end, whatever path we each choose, it must lead to-We Are One!