From outside the box

Why is it that most sports have something to do with one side trying to get a ball from here to there and the other side trying to stop the ball from getting there? At what point in the evolution of sports did the ball become the main catalyst of competition? And what is the purpose of sports? If it isn't about a ball, it's either about somebody trying to run further or faster than somebody else or it's two guys trying to damage each others body with their fists. Why are we so fascinated with people demonstrating their physical superiority over each other? Why do we like to see guys get hurt in the ring or cars crash on race tracks? Why do we care about who can do what with a ball? Why do we like to watch cowboys displaying their dominance over cattle? Why do we compete?

I've often wondered what aliens (assuming they are highly evolved beings) would think if they came here from another planet and the first thing they witnessed was a ball game. I think they would have to wonder why we don't try to reach an agreement on where that ball is supposed to be and then just put it there. However, being an advanced civilization, they would soon figure out that we are still in our competitive stage of evolution, something they probably worked thru eons ago, and decide we are not yet ready for contact.

I've heard the theory that sports and competition help to keep us out of constant wars. If that's true, it's not working very well. Is that why we compete? Is it just one stage higher than killing each other? Or is it that competition is a primal force etched deep into our collective consciousness, so deep that without it we never would have evolved as a species? It's true that evolution is based on competition. Species have always had to compete to survive and evolve. But isn't it funny how that inner drive to survive has come down to our need to control where a ball goes?

I'm not knocking sports mind you, I'm just trying to see sports from a detached point of view. I understand that it's a part of who we are, an expression of our need to survive and evolve. However, I do have to wonder if it is possible that at some point in time we can evolve beyond competition. That would also mean evolving beyond the need to dominate others or to seek personal attention for our superior skills. It would also mean evolving beyond war. What kind of a world would that be? Could life continue to survive and evolve without the need to compete? Would life be too boring or would we have replaced competition with loftier goals of self expression?

Lower life forms will always compete. They have to, it's the law of survival in a physical world. But us humans are operating from a higher consciousness, were just not completely demonstrating it yet. If we continue to reach for the highest we can be, if we keep realizing that we have the ability to change and always become more than we are, we will eventually replace the need to dominate with the need to cooperate. We will replace conflict with harmony.

As we move deeper into the age of technology, we are demonstrating an ability to accomplish things we never could have dreamed of, even a hundred years ago. The problem is, technology and conflict cannot co-exist for very long....and I don't see us giving up our technology anytime soon. We are at a point in our evolution where we must realize that in order to survive, we have to evolve beyond conflict, and quickly. But how can we do this? How can we take a giant leap in evolution and get beyond our deepest ingrained and most primal needs to survive by dominance and conflict? How can we get to the point that it no longer matters who does what with the ball?

It has to start with recognizing our connection more than our differences. We must begin to see ourselves in each other. We must modify our antiquated religious dogmas. Instead of seeing God out there, we should start looking at the God within. Instead of seeing everything as separate, we should put more attention on how everything might be connected.

If we were to take that giant evolutionary leap forward, what would replace our need to compete and dominate? Were already doing it, we've always been doing it. It has coexisted with war since we have been able to wage wars. It has been used to demonstrate our highest expressions of who we are and what we are capable of being. I'm talking about science and art. Thru sports we dominate. Thru war we dominate as well as destroy. Thru science and art we discover, we build, we express our inner divinity, we reach out to become more than who we are. Music does not compete. A painting does not compete. Science does not destroy....at least not until the military gets a hold of the science and pukes all over it.

It is in our nature to create beauty just as it is within us to destroy things. When we create beauty, we are reaching forward into our next step of evolution. When we destroy, we are reaching backwards to where we have come from and we cannot afford to go back, our technology will not allow us to keep reaching back and continue to survive. Sports doesn't have to become extinct. Like war, sports is not the cause of any of our problems but rather an expression of who we are, it's a symptom, not a cause. Maybe as we evolve, sports will evolve to become more of a self expression and less of a competition. And war?....well hopefully we'll let that expression die out altogether. When art and science take precedent over sports and war, we just might have a chance. When we all reach an agreement on where the ball should be and just put it there, our survival will be ensured.