I couldn't care less

I know I'm not the only one. I know there are others out there like me. There are others. I'm not a freak. I know there are others out there who couldn't give a flying fig about sports.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, sports seem to have some mysterious form of dominance in this world. I distinctly remember my elementary school years, and how I always felt like a lesser person because I wasn't taking any form of sport. I wasn't part of a club in my free time. I didn't feel passionate about any sport. I never got to pick teams in P.E class. I was one of the last to be picked for teams, except in softball, which I was good in but still didn't get picked among the first since I was after all a mere nerd.

I'm over it.

I will say this though, no kid of mine will ever feel pressured to take up a sport. Nor will I allow for them to be excluded in gym class simply because they're not a jock, or one of the popular kids. Physical education should never be dominated by popularity. P.E teachers shouldn't let the popular kids be the ones who always get to be team captains.
This is a separate issue, one that requires its own blog entry, and which no doubt would get rather heated, were I to lay into it.

No, my beef this time is with television and its everlasting preferential treatment of sporting events. Why is it that everything else seems to take a backseat to sports. Come on, it's sports! What is the overwhelming attraction? How can it be so important that T.V stations are willing to pre-empty any shows that coincide with a game? Will it change mankind in a profound way? Is it about someone who has invented something that will change the world for the better?
No, it's sports.
I get it though. Watching big athletes perform great feats touches people. I understand. I really do.

I get that it's a live game, and that a lot of people want to see it. I'm okay with that. I don't get the big deal about large men with sticks chasing after a puck and tackling each other, but okay, to each his own. I just wish there would be as much space for things other than sports.

Okay, now I'm realizing that this isn't really about T.V and its preferential treatment of sports, this is about deep rooted issues stemming back to my childhood. I am suddenly overcome with this memory of the class being split up into two groups, and there being two captains of the class who are choosing team members. It was always the same kids. Always two boys. Always two of the sporty kids, which is a dead giveaway that they were also two of the popular kids in the class. It's also somewhat alarming that they were always boys. However, that's a separate issue. The point is, sports have such a profound influence on our society, even to the point of how we value people. In school, kids that were good at sports had a higher social status, and isn't it it a fact that this is true for in society in general?

It's unfair to those that have other interests. I wish that culture could be deemed as valuable in mainstream society.