it's not like he raped anyone
nothing makes me feel quite so superior as the realization of just how unextraordinary I am. Why, you wonder, should this make me feel superior? well, it's the certain knowledge of how rare an american i am that i KNOW how unimportant i am. Bode Miller seems to understand this, too. he seems perfectly comfortable with the fact that he took advantage of the american obssession with WINNING to ensure that he could totally enjoy the fun of the Olympics even without winning a single thing. Ya gotta love a guy who refuses to apologize for losing, who doesn't even regret losing. Even as he is lambasted by the corporate media (who were counting on him become a BRAND), he manages to personify all of the qualities i (and, i suspect, his parents) still hold to be the only american dream worth pursuing... happiness derived from a thoughtful ability to keep "success" in perspective. It may be unpatriotic but I meant it when I told my son that i'd love him just as much for striking out as hitting a home run back in Little League.i don't mean to insult those atheletes who went out there to win and focused totally on that goal. but i do mean to say that the only athelete-parents with whom i can imagine having anything in common (y'know, people with whom i could share a joint or pitcher of margaritas) are the millers. i'm sure they're very happy when the kid wins, but they didn't spend their lives schlepping him to training sessions & lessons - he learned to ski down the mountain he lived on - and they didn't invest their lives in him (like the Turkish parents who gave up everything for their daughter's skating career), so he doesn't HAVE TO WIN to repay them. If he doesn't seem to feel a sense of indebtedness to his family, my guess is that he'd be damned before he'd feel guilty for having "disappointed" NBC (even if it's Tom Brokaw trying to get him to do so) or Wheaties or whoever.
Mettle over medals, everytime.
.....
posted by peg @ 7:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home