Tuesday, September 20, 2011

It's Only A Game

There is only one thing more depressing than watching the Australian Wallabies Rugby Union Team lose their match to Ireland last Saturday night. That is watching it on Channel 9, who broadcast it as a delayed telecast after some other sport and then had the hide to fill the game with more ads than a Sunday night movie. After watching for what seemed like an hour and a half and only getting to half time, I went to bed in disgust and saved myself the pain of watching another 90 minutes of try-less humiliation at the hands of the Irish. To be honest, the Irish are a good team and have almost done the same thing to us in other World Cups. So with Kiwi support and spoiling tactics, they earned their win.
New Zealand now has one hand on the cup, but when the  Wallabies won the World Cup in 1991, they did so by defeating the All Blacks in a semi final - something they might need to do again. Of course history is against that happening, as beating the All Blacks on home turf is about as likely as the Greek Government repaying their debts. New Zealand has their own issues to deal with in regards to not always playing at their best in World Cups, but Australia’s World Cup for 2011 seems mortally wounded.  
Sport is a fun part of life, but it is just a game. In fact none of it is real. The game is just a made up set of rules supposedly refereed by an impartial expert, who often has problems with his eyesight. The rules are gazetted but over the years some are modified and others are completely changed. A synthetic, pumped up, oval shaped ball is thrown (backwards only), carried and kicked (forwards only) around a field, while lines on the ground take on mystical qualities, defining the field of play from the ground which is out of bounds. Most mysterious of all is the idea that if you get the artificial ball over a made up line, without dropping it and while having it make contact with the ground, before you get to another made up line, then a man blows a whistle and awards you five points, that are just imaginary for they don’t really exist. You can also kick the ball from a special place in line with your try, and if that kick goes from the ground and over a horizontal bar and between two vertical bars, even if it is higher than the vertical bars so long as you can imagine them going up indefinitely, then you are awarded another two imaginary points. In the process there are some very strict rules about what you can and can't do in a ruck, a different set of rules for a maul, and then some more rules to tell you the difference. One rule that always exists is that you can’t run with the ball with someone on your team standing in front of you, as that is unfair – unless you do the same thing from a lineout when it is redefined as wonderful forward play.
It is only a game. 
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.  1Timothy 4: 8

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