{"id":9,"date":"2020-09-14T16:45:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T20:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/?p=9"},"modified":"2022-12-02T19:59:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T00:59:52","slug":"fiction-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/fiction-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiction\/Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athlete\u2019s Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, Please clear my head of all distractions
\nAnd my heart of all burdens I may bear,
\nSo I may preform my very best,
\nKnowing you\u2019ll always be there.<\/p>\n

Please lift me up before the moment,
\nSo through your eyes I may see,
\nAnd have a clearer understanding,
\nAs the game unfolds before me.<\/p>\n

With great courage I will meet this challenge,
\nAs you would have me to.
\nBut keep me humble and remind me,
\nThat my strength come from knowing you.<\/p>\n

Then when all eyes are upon me,
\nAt the end of this game,
\nI will turn their eyes to you O\u2019Lord,
\nAnd to the glory of your name.
\nAmen<\/p>\n

The poem, The Athlete\u2019s Prayer, is about a player who decides to pray to a higher power and ask for their help, before they take the field for a game. The athlete asks the higher power for a head clear of all distractions and a heart clear of all burdens. These requests directly connect to the buddhist idea of detachment. Ultimately, Buddhists use meditation to detach themselves from feelings of both pain and pleasure and escape their current feelings and emotions. This is exactly what athletes attempt to do through prayer. Taking a brief moment away from the game and asking a higher power to help clear their head and heart of all other feelings allows the athlete to live in the moment and prioritize their focus on the task at hand, which is the game. By doing this athletes are able to forget about all of their other stressors and anxiety inducers and allow them to enjoy the current moment of their life, which positively affects their mental health.<\/p>\n

The poem also includes a section where the athlete refers to the courage and strength needed in order to take on the difficult challenge of performing well on the field. The athlete mentions how the strength and courage will come to him only through their connection to the higher power. These statements stress the significance that religion provides to athletes. There is a feeling of emotional relief that comes from the belief and trust in a higher power leading the way for them. Once again, this emotional relief from sports and religion provides an escape from the real world and gives student athletes a moment to truly enjoy themselves. Overall, this poem really emphasizes the importance that sports provides to athletes, and especially student athletes through the process of detachment which ultimately leads to a positive impact on their mental health. The action of being on the field allows players to direct their focus to the sport and your own performance truly does \u201cdetach\u201d their minds from everythings they have going on in their life, in the same way Buddhists do when meditating
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Basketball,<\/p>\n

From the moment
\nI started rolling my dad\u2019s tube socks
\nAnd shooting imaginary
\nGame-winning shots
\nIn the Great Western Forum
\nI knew one thing was real:<\/p>\n

I fell in love with you.
\nA love so deep I gave you my all
\nFrom my mind & body
\nTo my spirit & soul.<\/p>\n

As a six-year-old boy
\nDeeply in love with you
\nI never saw the end of the tunnel.
\nI only saw myself
\nRunning out of one.<\/p>\n

And so I ran.
\nI ran up and down every court
\nAfter every loose ball for you.
\nYou asked for my hustle
\nI gave you my heart
\nBecause it came with so much more.<\/p>\n

I played through the sweat and hurt
\nNot because challenge called me
\nBut because YOU called me.
\nI did everything for YOU
\nBecause that\u2019s what you do
\nWhen someone makes you feel as
\nAlive as you\u2019ve made me feel.<\/p>\n

You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
\nAnd I\u2019ll always love you for it.
\nBut I can\u2019t love you obsessively for much longer.
\nThis season is all I have left to give.
\nMy heart can take the pounding
\nMy mind can handle the grind
\nBut my body knows it\u2019s time to say goodbye.
\nAnd that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready to let you go.
\nI want you to know now
\nSo we both can savor every moment we have left together.
\nThe good and the bad.
\nWe have given each other
\nAll that we have.<\/p>\n

And we both know, no matter what I do next
\nI\u2019ll always be that kid
\nWith the rolled up socks
\nGarbage can in the corner
\n:05 seconds on the clock
\nBall in my hands.
\n5 \u2026 4 \u2026 3 \u2026 2 \u2026 1
\nLove you always,
\nKobe<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sports are filled with cliches. But these cliches often ring true. \u201cFor the love of sports\u201d to \u201cThere is no place like sports\u201d. We frequently hear inspirational stories about triumph and tribulation in the face of adversity – life lessons that translate from the field to our everyday lives. In the case of Kobe Bryant, his poem \u201cDear Basketball\u201d demonstrates all he learned from the game of basketball.\u00a0 One\u2019s relationship with their sport isn\u2019t all that dissimilar to one with a significant other. There is a serious emotional commitment and time investment to one\u2019s sport. Breakups hurt just like the loss of a championship game or a retirement, and the big wins are comparable to the joy experienced with a loved one. Kobe writes \u201cI gave you my heart\u2026 because it came with so much more\u201d. Kobe felt there was a reciprocation between him and the game of basketball, each giving value to each other and their relationship. It is an application of exchange theory, but instead of a relationship between people, it is a relationship between a person and their passion. <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Athlete\u2019s Prayer Lord, Please clear my head of all distractions And my heart of all burdens I may bear, So I may preform my very best, Knowing you\u2019ll always be there. Please lift me up before the moment, So through your eyes I may see, And have a clearer understanding, As the game unfolds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-posts","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/594\/2020\/09\/2FD3E4C8-64A6-49BA-842B-DF3EDC13C38D-600x400.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/594\/2020\/09\/2FD3E4C8-64A6-49BA-842B-DF3EDC13C38D-600x600.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"David Israel","author_link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/author\/disrael\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-2310-fall-2022-group-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}