I failed to record the presentation for this topic, but you can still view the intro video clip, look at the slides (click them to enlarge), read the comments and leave your own comments on this topic below. And make sure you listen to the Don Cherry Meets Jesus story from the presentation too!
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Right now I'm sitting in the House Cafe finishing up today's presentation and listening to the game (Detroit 2, Calgary 0 with 300,000 Calgary penalties and it's only a few minutes into the first period!). I sure hope this afternoon's live event ends up being a celebration not a funeral.
Here's my speaking notes from this afternoon's presentation (in lieu of the video of the presentation, which I forgot to record).
Following the first video: Nike has found an entire multi-sport marketing campaign in the idea of sport experiences entering regular daily life.
But this is nothing new: Sports analogies are common metaphors for life (Baseball is king).
Community: Our desire to own a win (be a winner) ... something more - our need to connect, find common ground - BE a team.
Competition: It seems that there’s a greater polarity among professional athletes: From Hedonists to Spiritualists.
Why? Because they are very directly involved in something that directly connects with so many raw aspects of what it is to be human (Competition, endurance, defeat, overcoming, working together etc). - so some fall to animalism, and some rise to heroics.
Strangely enough, all these aspects of sport are also central aspects of religion! (You can’t talk about the big tensions of life without touching on spiritual themes).
These basic elements of humanity bring us to the final “C.” Strange? perhaps, but it gets stranger ... I’m not going to talk about this one: Grapes is!? (leads into the Don Cherry audio clip).
Al Davis - famous sports franchise owner in California had a motto - "Just win baby!" It was a rallying cry that motivated his team into the playoffs.
In hockey playoffs winning is the measure of excellence. Guys are playing for jobs for the following season. Dominek Hasek, the Detroit goalie, had a clause in his contract which stipulated that if they win the Stanley Cup he'll be paid a cool ONE MILLION dollars extra.
Emotions run high. Late in game five, after it was immanently clear that Calgary would lose (the score was 4-0 Detroit), backup goalie Jamie Maclennan, only in the game for `18 seconds, took a two handed swing at a Red Wing crusing through the crease. The player crumpled to the ice and the goalie was given a match penalty and ejected from the game.
Subsequently, the player returned in game 6 - which was do or die for Calgary, who was facing elimination - and scored the winning goal in what looked like a harmless shot from just inside the blueline. The shot by Johan Franzen turned out to be the game winner and the series clincher!
The NHL office in NYC handed down a five game suspension for the player, a $25,000 fine for the coach and $100,ooo fine to the Flames hockey club.
I was wondering if Maclennan brought out the ugly hand of fate as a result of his inability to control his temper. Heck everybody gets angry! Mel Gibson to the cops, Alec Baldwin to his kid, even Jesus to the merchandisers in the temple! Why consequences for only some people's mistakes? I wonder: Does God overlook some people's sins while punishing others? Is that what King David wrote about when he wrote in Psalms "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord doesn't hold against him?
Mark
"Only God can call a line change that won't send you golfing."
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