Monday, October 20, 2008

The Agon

It occurs to me on the occasion of Red Sox's loss in the ALCS that losing has its beauty. Our culture only cares about the winners but has little to say about losers who fight until the end. Winning isn't even interesting if you don't beat someone good but we treat losers, even when luck plays a role, like pariahs.

The struggle has its own beauty. I lost my last fight as a boxer - to a pretty good kid who turned pro - but I felt satisfied afterward. I'd left it all in the ring, I just happened to be matched against someone who was more experienced. I learned more losing that fight than I did from my victories.

4 comments:

*** ******** said...

know what you mean. i learned so much more from losing my first amateur fight than i would have from winning....and it made winning my first mma fight 1,000 times better.

Robot Boy said...

I won my first fight on a second round TKO - and I had absolutely no idea what was happening.

BJG. said...

Without the beauty of losing there would be no Paradise Lost. Or me. I'm just a beautiful loser.

Robot Boy said...

Well, you got the loser part right, papi chulo.