SEEING GOOD IN THE WORLD

I have always believed that there is more to be learned about human beings in the sports page than on the front page. Landon Donovan, a member of the 2010 US Soccer Team in the World Cup said something that seemed really important about people and sports in his latest quote . After recently scoring the winning goal against Algeria that put the Americans into the second round, he was quoted as saying, "I've been through a lot in the last four years, and I'm so glad it culminated this way. It makes me believe in good in the world. When you try to do things the right way, that's good to see them get rewarded."
I understood Donovan to be saying that sports represents the hope that the world makes sense - that good things happen when you play it straight and do the right thing. Sports embodies the idea that good things happen to the good guys more often than not. Even when cheating does occur, the belief that we hold for sports is that cheaters will ultimately get caught in the long run. We want to believe that performance enhancing drugs in sports do more harm than good. We want to believe that the sporting world is fair and that bad calls by referees even themselves out. We want to have hope that the good guys will overcome all obstacles to win in the end. We watch and we wait to have those dreams confirmed.
We all know that the real world does not work that way. People can cheat their way to the top. People get rich for more that working hard. Leaders will tell people what they want to hear to hold onto power. Having money is far better than having no money. Down deep, we know that people are only some good and some bad and to expect more is unreasonable.
But in the world of sports, we hope for the best, even if we know that we hold our athletes and our sports to unreasonable standards. We need to, or else we would lose the hope that good things can happen if you do the right thing.
No wonder the sports page is so much better to read than the front page.