Last night, when I found out the Miami Heat won the NBA championship and LeBron James finally got his coveted ring, a number of bitter thoughts surfaced and swirled in my mind:
- He's still - putting it politely - an unpleasant person who has given new meaning to self-love.
- He couldn't win without an all-star cast and outstanding role players surrounding him.
- He should have done it in Cleveland, but instead this is yet another punch in the stomach for us.
- Sports publications and commentators will fall over themselves with unbridled adulation for James.
- Ugh, yuck, @#$@%!!!
This morning, however, I woke up with a new clarity dominated by one thought: who cares? Does this really change my life in any way? No. It's just sports, it's just a game, and as a good friend once said, "it doesn't have an impact on my life."
That may be going a bit too far. Sports are a terrific diversion, a break from the real cares of life, and a well-played game by creative, gifted players like James is a work of art unto itself. I've grown up rooting for my Cleveland teams, buying posters, collecting trading cards, and playing pickup games with friends, imagining I was Bernie Kosar, Jerry Rice, Larry Nance, and other greats. In short, the sporting world has always been important to me, and I would be lying if I said I could simply dismiss it with mental sleight of hand.
Nonetheless, I must put sports in proper perspective, and here I am reminded of the principle of "indifference" articulated by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. For Ignatius, indifference referred not to "not caring," but to the cultivation of an interior stance of freedom by detaching from disordered affections. As I understand it, that means letting go of the things which are not really important, things that get in the way of real living and loving, so that I can focus instead on the things that count, that really matter to me: my wife, family, friends, and the pursuit of meaning, happiness, and love.
I will always enjoy my diversions - books, online articles, Facebook, movies, the outdoors, and of course sports - but as soon as I make any of these as the center of my universe, I'm lost. I'm not free, I'm not myself, and I'm certainly not happy.
So to hell with LeBron and his overrated, overpaid, prima donna brethren in the professional sporting world. Let them have their rings, let them count their money, and let them hug their trophies. I will never dismiss them entirely. I will never turn them off completely. I will never not watch the games. But the more I can put them in their proper place and remind myself that they really don't matter, make a real difference, or deserve an inordinate amount of attention or devotion, the better off I and the people around me will be.
