Big picture

I am watching the spinning kids, the throwing and chasing of balls and the crushing of bodies on the floor. This is lacrosse. The original intention of this game was to resolve disputes between native tribes. The spirit then is to bring opposing teams together and resolve disputes... and yet when the skills of the game are not mastered, the hitting and slashing gets harder and more frequent.

Step outside the arena and see these same youth without pads and helmets, tossing the ball, playing tricks with their sticks and reliving their memorable moments of glory and challenge in the game. There is a connection to something bigger - the game - and how they challenge and master themselves within it.

It is the connection to something bigger that helps them to connect to each other. Every player wants to win. Every player takes the hits and runs the floor, tosses and shoots, in this way they are all the same. The game is a vehicle of experience that lets them see their own skill, strength, agility and speed AND in feeling that power, they can open to the others who share that experience.

This is the value of sport, recreation, so often missed when the focus is the score and not the experience. This is the value we could glean from work too when the bottom line becomes more important than how we play and when we can't see ourselves on the same team. It is when we see ourselves as separate the slashing and the checking begins.
If we placed more value on the experiences of our lives rather than our power, our wealth, our self importance, I wonder too if the world would resolve it's disputes and put an end to the slashing and checking. It's subtle isn't it; it's the focus on how well we are playing, not whether we are winning or losing.