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Keeping Score
for release 11-19-07
Washington DC
by Lightning Rod
I'm sick of keeping score. We keep score of everything. How many home runs did Barry Bonds hit? How far is Hillary ahead of Obama in the polls? What is my bank balance? How many kilowatts did I use? What were my carbon emissions? What is the price of gas at the pump? Is it higher than last week? Who's the sexiest man alive? How about the stock market? Is it up or down? We're always keeping score.
We keep score of who has the most money, who can run faster, make the most touchdowns and who can earn the most points on Jeopardy. We also keep score in our personal lives. Did he remember our anniversary? Was she indifferent in bed? Who makes the bigger messes? Plus one point, minus one point, etc. Keeping score.
There are several drawbacks to keeping score. The main one is that you waste time and effort when comparing yourself to others. There are two possible outcomes of this practice. You will either judge yourself superior and thus become inflated and vain or you will judge yourself inferior and become discouraged and depressed. It's a no-win situation.
Another reason why keeping score is futile is that different people use different yardsticks. Are we using gallons or liters? Are we using dollars or euros or yen?
Time and technology are yardsticks as well. When I was in junior high school I spotted bar for my friend Pinto Beene. He was a pole vaulter. He used a bamboo pole. He could clear 14 feet. He was Texas State champion. Now they have fiberglass poles that are like springs and can propel a vaulter 22 feet over the bar. Time and technology have changed the yardstick of what it means to be a record pole vault.
At one time 256K was a large amount of disk space or memory on a computer. Now gigabites are standard and we're talking about terrabites. The scale slides. The yardstick changes length. It becomes harder to keep score.
Here's a case in point: The asterick beside Roger Maris's home run record in 1961. Ok, I know that there is not really an asterick in the record books. It's an urban legend. But this legend indicates that there is a shadow on the record. Maris hit 61 homers which beat Ruth's record for a season. The only problem was that Ruth's season was 154 games long and Maris had a season of 162 games. He hit the record home run in the last game. The yardstick breathes, the scale slides.
Does Barry Bonds' record of 73 homers in 2001 deserve an asterick because medical technology has evolved to the point that we can now turn a skinny outfielder into the Incredible Hulk with just a little shot of non-specific, undetectable, quasi-steroidal elixir? Did the scale slide again?
The Poet's Eye doesn't want to look at the scoreboard, it just wants to enjoy the game.
There's no trophy for your service
But treasures are in store
So don't worry, don't you worry
God is keeping score
--Charles Billingsley
