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Taking up the Lance once again
While trying to pack and all that, I've also been trying to finish Lance Armstrong's autobiography It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life because the copy I have is borrowed and I would like to send it back to its owner before I move rather than moving it with me. I was struck by this passage:
I was a cancer survivor first and an athlete second, I decided. Too many athletes live as though the problems of the world don't concern them. We are isolated by our wealth and our narrow focus, our elitism. But one of the redeeming things about being an athlete--one of the real services we can perform--is to redefine what's humanly possible. We cause people to reconsider their limits, to see that what looks like a wall may really just be an obstacle in the mind. Illness is not unlike athletic performance in that respect: there is so much we don't know about our human capacity, and I felt it was important to spread the message.
Lots of pro athletes--and lots of the rest of us, for that matter--have difficult experiences in their lives, but not all of us make lemonade out of the lemons we've been given, and fewer still end up passing out free lemonade to others. Difficulties often push our focus inward as we struggle to deal with them, but for some people it also widens their vision to the troubles of others, sometimes to those with similar problems, sometimes even more broadly.
The other part of that quotation, that athletes "redefine what's humanly possible" seems to me to have several facets (it also echoes the "heroic code" defined in John Gardner's Grendel). Athletes are, of course, often amazing physical specimens, showing us the potential inherent in our bodies. As public figures, their struggles are more public and their success over personal adversity are on display for us, again showing the sorts of triumphs of the human spirit over challenges that are possible. And when they learn to show the sort of compassion and generosity that Lance Armstrong (and many other athletes too) has shown, they also remind us of the abilties that we all have to share ourselves--our time, our talent, our compassion--with others. Perhaps we shouldn't need a celebrity to show us this, but in an era when the selfish athlete who seems to care only about himself and his money seems almost ubiquitous, it's wonderful to see athletes who give something back.
And for that matter, it is good to remember that a lot of athletes who you may never have heard of are doing good things. From watching the NFL team whose struggles I nominally make my own each fall--the Cincinnati Bengals--I've seen this. They are making the news right now because of the poor behavior of some of their young players who've been arrested or suspended by the league for substance abuse, but what's not making the news is how many players (as well as the coachc) head up charitable foundations. Head coach, Marvin Lewis has not only improved the team's play over his three years there, he has also encouraged his players to get involved in the community and give back.