I may have mentioned, from time to time, the undoubted fact that I have the two most wonderful children in captivity. My daughter is charming, beautiful, virtuous, intelligent, and wonderful beyond compare. My son is handsome, personable, insightful, and a complete delight to all who know him.
It is about my son that I start this thread.
He runs track. Mostly sprints - the one hundred and two hundred meters are his speciality. He is, I suppose, average. He will never win the Olympic gold medal, appear on the Wheaties[sup]TM[/sup] box, or make millions for endorsing over-priced athletic shoes produced by exploited Third World labor. But he thoroughly and completely enjoys being on the team, he lettered, and he is popular with his buddies on the team and with his coach especially for his unfailingly cheerful attitude. He has a good time, training and competing, and everyone else has a better time than they otherwise would simply being around him.
His team shares with him his averageness. They don’t have much chance to win State, they mess around in the bottom half of the standings, and none of them expect or will receive scholarships to Big Ten schools or UCLA based on their track achievements. They train hard, they show up and do their best, then they go home and hang out together and enjoy their time in high school.
This is the last of my son’s three years of high school track. He’s made the team three times running, done everything asked of him and a bit more, and did more than his part to bring up the spirits of the team, come what may. He even got a school award (from the ski team, but he is the same on track) for having the best attitude of any athlete in the school. He’s a good kid, and he is having a good time.
Get the picture?
But since the track team has little-to-no chance to win much, the coach likes to change things up and give people a chance to try different stuff. My son runs the sprints, but this year he has competed in every event in track and field except [ul][li]the pole vault, and the 110 meter high hurdles.[/ul][/li]
Last Friday is the last track meet of the last season that my son will ever run in. They didn’t have the pole vault, but they did have the 110 meter high hurdles. So the coach says, what the heck, we got an open slot - go in and do the 110 meter high hurdles.
Did I mention that my son is average? And he has never trained for or practiced the event in his life.
But he ran the event. Horribly unskillfully - he had to stop, gather himself, and then jump over most of the hurdles, and he finished “with the field in view” as the phrase goes. But his team mates, all of whom know his quest to try all the track and field events once, and who like him - a lot - were all cheering him to the echo, and without a trace of sarcasm or condescension. And so did the spectators, who got into the spirit of the thing as my son struggled to the end with a big, sheepish grin on his face. And got a big round of applause.
Which brings me to the point of the Pitting. That stupid son of a whore who was refereeing the event - disqualified him, for “having an unsportsmanlike attitude”. So my son didn’t get to finish, officially, the 110 meter high hurdles after all.
Did it bother my son at all? Not in the least - he did his best, had himself a good time, and will now graduate (with honors) from high school and get on with his life without a backwards glance. Did it bother the coach? Not him either -it affected their place in the standings not at all. Did it bother my son’s team mates? Not hardly, they were all laughing their fool heads off at the worst performance of the meet, because they know what the hell is important.
But to that stupid referee -
You, sir, are an idiot. In your small-minded and petty way, you have done what you could to spoil what was, and should have been, a minor triumph. Because you did not understand that it does no one harm and everyone good, to watch someone compete purely for the fun of it.
And for that, I Pit you.
Regards,
Shodan
