Sports v Arts

Many Patriots fans believe that that football (with its statistics, its rankings, its maneuvers and strategies and all that) is important.   Many other people say that it's semi-barbaric silliness -- utterly inferior to, say, fine art.

I once read this quote:   Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.

This was meant to be a diss (dis?) of politics, but I read it as an even harder diss of football (or sports in general), which this expression seems to think is fait accompli the essence of stupidity.

What IS football?  I mean, it's some sort of provincial part-cerebral, part-visceral experiential thing with overt tribal overtones, but whatever.  The thing is: it's there.  Some people think it is important, even if others dismiss it.

Ya know, sports are actually WAY more potent than fine art in its level of ...jubilation?  affect?  I don't know what the word it.   But it kicks fine art's ass, even if snippy people judge it as inferior.

Unlikely a fan of Ulyssses.

To a great extent, on that level, the entire universe is on an equal footing: we're all just trying to create something new, on levels both personal to wayyy beyond our ken.   I used to think that if aliens came to earth, that goddamn Chaucer would impress them and the Boston Red Sox would be totally gauche.  I no longer think that.


Upon death, when we go to some alternate reality (which today would be ridiculously-roughly referred to as "Heaven") are they going to favor Sons & Lovers and goddamn Cantebury Tales over the Raiders game? 

Do other countries ply their kids with shit 300-year-old soap operas in a failed effort to sophisticate them?   If so, tell me in the comments!

I'm sorry if this blog entry has only a very muddy point.