KEEPING PERSPECTIVE IN SPORT AND IN LIFE

  Few of us live our lives free of adversity, challenges and disappointments. Likewise, few athletes compete without adversity, challenges and disappointments.  Two thousand years ago, a philosopher and sports enthusiast named Philo who lived in Alexandria Egypt, wrote the following words: "It rarely happens that God allows a man to run life's race from start to finish without stumbling or falling, and to escape fouls by rushing past them with a sudden and violent burst of speed."

  A mark of champions is their ability to face those challenges and disappointments in such a way that they are able to rebound from them and resume a spirit of energetic enthusiasm and confident competitiveness.

  The following parable offers insight into that wisdom ... 

   IN THE COURT OF KING SOLOMON there served a loyal officer named Joseph, who took upon himself any task that was required to minister to his master.  Often he could be heard bragging to the others: “There is no assignment the king could ask of me that I would be unable to fulfill.”

   When word of this reached the king, he thought to put the braggart Joseph to the test.  He decided to ask Joseph to fetch him an item that did not exist!

   Summoning Joseph to the royal chambers, King Solomon said to him:  “There is a ring that I have had my heart set on owning for some time.  It is a special ring that can make a sad person happy, and yet make a happy person sad.   I want you to find this ring and bring it back to me within the next 6 months.

   Joseph accepted his assignment eagerly.  First he went to the camel traders, certain that in their journeys across the deserts, one of them would have surely come across such a ring.  But, alas, none of them had knowledge of such a treasure.  So he turned to the seafarers, hoping that in their voyages to far off lands, one of them might have knowledge of this fantastic ring.  But none of them were of any help to him, either.

   SO JOSEPH DECIDED that he would have to go off in search of this special ring himself.  He traveled from country to country, from bazaar to bazaar, but nowhere was he able to find the ring he had been asked to locate.  Nevertheless, the knowledge that his king depended on him to fulfill this mission kept him devoted to the task.

   Month followed month, and after Joseph’s searches brought him no success, he arrived at yet another country, yet another bazaar, at yet another jeweler’s stall.  Here he found a young lad, and asked him, as he had so many others, if he knew perhaps of a ring such as the one he had been assigned to bring back.  Hoping against hope that the lad might offer encouraging words, he learned that the boy knew of no such ring.  Deeply disappointed by the news, and with the six months coming to a rapid close, Joseph turned to leave the shop when the boy’s grandfather, who had overheard the conversation, came forth and said, “I know of such a ring that truly has the power to make a sad man happy, and make a happy man sad.  Wait here and I shall produce it for you.”

   AS JOSEPH WAITED with great anticipation, the old man went into the back room of his shop, took a simple gold band, and inscribed something on the inside of the ring.  This he then brought it out to Joseph.

   Joseph examined the ring, smiled, and said, “Yes, this is certainly the ring I have been looking for!”

   Upon his return to Jerusalem, Joseph proceeded to the palace of Solomon.  When the king asked if Joseph had succeeded in his task, imagine his shock when Joseph replied that indeed, he had located the ring as requested of him.

   He handed the ring to the king.  As the king examined it, a strange expression came over his face, for he was reminded that both his greatest accomplishments and his deepest sorrows were but fleeting occurrences.

   “Yes,” said Solomon, “this is truly a ring that has the power to make a sad man happy and a happy man sad.”  For what was written on the ring were the words: THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS.

   The king put the ring on, and wore it from that day forward.  And every time he felt sad or depressed, he would look at the ring, whereupon his mood would change and good cheer would come to him.

                       © 2016 by Dr. Mitch Smith, Certified Sport Psychology Consultant