The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
The NCAA basketball tournament is held every year in March, and usually ends during the first week of April. Lois and I binge-watch parts or all of many of the playoff games, and we almost always watch all three games of the Final Four and the NCAA finals for both the women and the men.
I never cease to be amazed at the athletic abilities of all the players, especially those of the few standouts who appear every year, like Caitlin Clark, of the Iowa women’s team.. These superstars regularly do things that can’t be done; they accomplish what no one can accomplish. They are a testimony to a particular brand of the unwarranted abilities that God created within the astonishing species known as Homo sapiens.
However, no matter how gifted an athlete might be, those gifts cannot be brought to their fullest fruition without literally thousands of hours of practice. And that requires extraordinary amounts of discipline on the part of both the athletes and their coaches. Furthermore, the best of basketball players cannot display their talent to their limits without the other members of the team. Basketball, like many sports, requires certain number of people at a time to turn the good into the best.
Ego is an absolute necessity and also a huge detriment to basketball. Each player needs a maximum of raw ego, but they must also be committed to a maximum commitment to the team. Five egos need to become melded into the overall benefit of the team. Above all else, basketball is a team effort. It cannot be an individual enterprise.
Watching a game, it becomes evident that some players are more adept at advancing the team than they are at advancing themselves. Others --- and fortunately they are a decidedly small but also obvious minority --- insist on being ball hogs, hotshots, and prima donnas. It is well for everyone to remember that only teams can win basketball games; individuals cannot do it.
My favorite song in the Broadway musical Damn Yankees is “I Thought About The Game.” In that particular number, each member on the dramatized Washington Senators baseball team remembers how the temptations of life can distract them. Before the team starts to sing the song, the manager warns them, “No drinkin’, no women, no gamblin’, no women, no late hours, no women.” But when they recall those diversions, they always return to thinking about the game, until they finish the song with the last rousing verse, “The game, the game! To our women one and all/ We will see you in the fall/ But for now we’ve got to stall/ Every dame!/ And think about The Game!”
Because that’s what they do, the Joe-Hardy inspired teammates on the fictional Washington Senators go on to win the American League pennant against the Damn Yankees in 1955. And that fulfilled the dreams of Joe Hardy, their star who led them to victory, having sold his soul to the devil to get there. But, with a happy ending, the devil was cheated. Still, it was, and had to be, a team effort.
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On Hilton Head Island, March also brings another display of unique talent via the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Young pianists from all over the world come to perform in a round-robin program of performances until a winner is finally chosen. Sometimes the pianists are college-age or beyond, but this year they were all youngsters from thirteen to seventeen.
I am always astounded how any musician of any age can learn to play a long composition from memory, but I am particularly astounded how mere teenage pianists can do that. Furthermore, I am gobsmacked at how the piano competition judges, who also come from all over the world, can ultimately agree on a winner. To my unlettered mind, every competitor is a deserving winner of the $10,000 first prize.
Last evening I attended a concert of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. It ended with a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The pianist was the twenty-year-old Japanese-American Ray Ushikubo, who won the HHIPC in 2017. I am certainly no expert, but I aver that his was the best individual piano performance I have ever heard. However (and this will validate my non-expertise), every pianist I have ever heard is always the best performer I ever heard. It doesn’t take much to impress this yokel.
Whatever my particular talents are, perhaps I have spent more time in the study of theology, broadly speaking, than any other intellectual pursuit. When I think about any uniquely gifted musical or athletic talent, I am continuously struck by the God who created all of us. God gave all of us has several talents, but some people utilize their God-given gifts far more fully than others. Why anyone receives the ability to excel in stellar accomplishments is anyone’s guess, but without enormous amounts of study and practice, those talents can never develop to their fullest fruition.
Whether it is individual or team sports, achieving the best requires raw talent, endless practice, great instructors and coaches, and immense luck: being in the right place at the right time and among the right people. Unmatched musical talent demands the same factors, whether in solo or in troupe performances.
Of all types of group efforts, a symphony orchestra has always impressed me the most, even more than any sport. Because I never learned how to play any musical instrument, I am in awe of anyone who can play anything well. In the end, every such activity is a gift from God.
As the last song in the musical Godspel declares, “Long live God!” And long live any and every talent, says I. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. – March 28, 2023
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.