Christmas Reflections

12-19-88

Perspective:

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. The wrestling team won a dual meet over Minot State. The Lady Cobbers went to 6-1 and claimed the mythical "best team in Fargo-Moorhead" title with a win over Moorhead State. And all the Cobber teams adjusted their schedules for final exams and Christmas break. Sports gave way, a bit, to other priorities.

Christmas season brings on reflection for most of us, a sorting through of what matters and what doesn't matter quite so much. Families, we remember, are more precious than the pursuit of fame. Helping is more virtuous than victory. Friendships are more enduring than championships. And public prominence is not always the soundest measure of importance.

In our little corner of the sporting world the harsh and frequent measurement of "success" afforded by winning and losing subsides for a time. And we pause to measure our lives by more substantive yardsticks.

Are we growing in character? Are our children and students and families maturing with solid values? Is our institution extolling truth, justice and reconciliation. Are we being good stewards of our talents as we celebrate the gift of Christmas? Are we keeping things in perspective?

Concordia, like many educational institutions, wrestles with the contradictions and anomalies which the sponsorship of athletic teams sometimes creates. The cauldron of athletic competition generates institutional loyalty, publicity, and an opportunity for public demonstrations of a portion of our educational mission. The challenge offered to student athletes, to test their limits and excel while cooperating with teammates and being gracious in the face of constant public scrutiny, is clearly a valuable aspect of the college's total campus life. But it is, we must remember, just one aspect.

The temptation to measure the importance of one's endeavors by the amount of publicity received often leads to frustration by those who labor in relative obscurity.

Sports teams receive their disproportionate press coverage, compared to biology departments and brilliant professors, for reasons peculiar to sport itself. The measurability and finality of sporting events make them (relatively) easy to cover and, for better or worse, more interesting to readers.

The unscripted drama of sport, the clarity of its rules, and the compression of struggle into two hours of theater, where character and courage are so nakedly tested, makes good stories. And good entertainment. The more elongated processes of an educational institution and its quiet triumphs are harder to get a handle on and harder to report as "news." That does not make them less important, just less publicized. An educational institution's reasons for fielding athletic teams may not be much different than their reasons for having a Spanish Department. But it is up to the college, not the media, to keep its educational priorities in order. It is up to coaches and athletes, and professors as well, to see that they are working for something more substantive than tomorrow's press clippings. When we do otherwise and give away the power to define who we are we give up a great deal.

We celebrate the birthday on Christmas of someone who knew who He was through all types of press coverage. A good lesson there for all of us.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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