During my semi-retirement years, a period extending over thirty years, I have subscribed to a variety of magazines of substance and popularity for this or that emphasis in the general society, or in this or that journal in a field related to belief and human practice. I carry them for a year or two, drop them, and move on to others, but some I hold for longer periods. They offer too much to give up on their challenge. Some of them hold to a context that I would not support, but I get the orientation as challenge for self and what I want to communicate to others. On many occasions I have been surprised with what I have found that holds a high standard for its field of interest, and reflects truths that ought to have readers think more deeply about the issues related to the field of interest. Usually the writing styles are excellent, and reflect the serious concentration of the writers, although the journals of academia are often too labored for most readers – even for those dedicated to the primary field covered. Truth often appears in ponderous style.
My example for today is found in Sports Illustrated for October 21, 2013, the editorial page at the end of the magazine, written on this date by Steve Rushkin. The article is well written, showing serious thought about life and conditions, on this occasion related to health and sports, with a sense of values related to human life. (Football is currently embarrassed by official casualness for the number of players whose health and lives have been seriously threatened by brain concussions related to the collisions of athletes in game play.) Rushkin, a native Minnesotan, uses his own experience in contact with Alan Page, a football great of his childhood, who showed gracious response to him, fulfilling a model role to the admiring kid. Page became a highly respected member of the Minnesota Supreme Court so to defy the image of the dumb jock. But the burden of the article is on a theme related to the brain, and its meaning to every person relating to life. Rushkin argued that the brain must not be abused, and cited that all but two of forty four brains (tissue) studied of former players showed degenerative disease (CTE). He followed: This should trouble anybody with a brain, which is the repository of our conscience, our moral reasoning and our humanity. The brain is what the Scarecrow needs to be human. . . . The brain is everything, the universe and all that is in it. He then quoted Emily Dickinson: The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.
Rushkin cited a player who hid a piece of metal in his swathed hands, so to ring the bell of opposing players. He closed with the statement that: a bell, for better or worse, can never be unrung. So we have a story of defiance of common grace in using competition, not in fair play but to maim, wound, or terrify an opponent so to win, not in the spirit of besting through truth and reality, by rules and mutual concern for better and improving performance in conduct. I do not know if Rushkin sensed the legitimate spiritual truth in his essay editorial, but it is there for the insightful and understanding reader. Without God for morality which defines values, the metal piece in a bandaged hand is as good as any other option in a dangerous game. Who is to decide the right? Our human side may give us a belief that to the winner go the benefits, so win at any cost. This view both causes and justifies cheating whether on a test in class, cheating on family, cheating on taxes – cheating. Cheating is an ugly and unfair weapon of choice.
God can reverse the conclusion of the negative bell. We find our follies either as individuals or society, and ask God’s forgiveness found genuine in a new outlook of seeking good for all – even our opponents. This is found in a reverence for life, an evidence of God’s gift in us. Once affirmed everything changes. God gives beauty and balance to moral life. We ask for his forgiveness which is compassionately given, and then ask for help to function better with others, and with ourselves. The natural world lives by the premiums of law. God calls for the premium of morality (righteousness). To meet the complexity of the magnitude of life, we leap through faith to the mercy of God to us. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020