DE-CURSER
Now that the sports world's Curse of “the Sultan of Swat” - Babe Ruth - against the Boston Red is being worked over, it might be as good a time as any for us to take another look at some of the other pet theories we have had for many years.
No only is it time for us to re-evaluate some of the standards by which we live, but it may be time to eliminate some such ideas which have been impeding our progress for years.
It is perfectly natural that you might, like most of us, insist at this point, that you have no such flaws. Other people seem to be so burdened, but not us as individuals. That may well be the first idea to cast aside. We all have such questionable traits largely, perhaps, of who we are and where we came from. That source alone can provide us with handicaps untold.
We are often cursed by regional difference – innate feelings, sentiments, folklore leftovers, sectional splinters, some religious quirks, as host of politically-founded hatreds and other such handicaps which do none of us any lasting good. For out ultimate good, it would seem that it might be wise for us to start acting more as a cohesive unit than as a divided amalgam of sometimes rattling parts which other nations do not always understand.
Every effect has a primary cause. Assuming that most of us agree with that concept, it is essential that we examine those effects from time-to- time to see what caused them to be. If you continue to think, as you probably were told as a child, that touching a toad will give you a bad set of unsightly warts you have not bothered to learn basics about toad critters. You may have been led to believe that “lightening does not strike twice in the same place.”
A lot of dead people have tested that one to their lasting regret. In truth, much of what we believe is up for questioning, re-examination, revision or even replacement. We will be better off in may ways without the encumbrance of such excess baggage, just as many Red Sox fans can look forward with greater confidence to a World Series this year.
it is time for us tor ealize how we are constructed and to live accordingly if we wish to continue our erratic and blessed path. For instance, let's accept the idea that we, as a nation, a blend of many peoples. Let's be proud of the fact that we have accepted millions of Latinos in our midst rather than continuing to combat the idea of such a welcome and to realize that our place in the future depends on our ability to blend for our common good. We have used several trying centuries attempting to do the same thing with blacks, reds, and yellows so we have plenty of example explaining the wisdom for making such a transition willingly and peacefully.
The Bambino Curse of the Red Sox strikes some of us as a piece of sports-world humor; of people fooling themselves to keep their nerve up while living in doubt and concern over their own level of their training, experience and dedication to ideals such as integrity, physical preparedness and common sense. So many of the superstitions we carry with us today and brandish all too readily are based on a similar foundation of shifting sands and soggy soil.
You know what your “superstitions” are. You don't have to be told what you believe which is not true. It is not my place to judge your conduct. I have enough to do try to manage my own, but I do think it is a good time right now - while “hero worship”is taking a few knocks as we see Babe Ruth for the first time as a resentful, vindictive, even a selfish , stubborn and vengeful individual placing a “curse” on the future achievements of his previous associates. His being traded to the New York ”Yankees” - often called “the worst trade ever made in American baseball” enabled him to become the idol of millions of fans. Had he stayed where he had been, would he have become what he has been to so many of us?
Considering the fragile nature of our beliefs could my personal belief in the unquestioned excellence of the “Sultan of Swat”, be anything other than a form of superstition I happened to believe as being important in the 1920's decade and through the intervening years to today when I feel a flaw has been shown to have existed about which I have not been aware.
Whatever it takes for you to do so: work at exorcising crippling superstition from your life.
A.L.M. October 23, 2004 [c799wds]
