Play On!

The first Christmas brought on Earth a figure who despite His demonstration of perfection in behavior, was destined to be tortured and killed. If the best of all beings ended with the worst of treatment, what do we lesser mortals expect?

We, who are ourselves imperfect, are often asked to judge the actions of other people.

Even our sports performances are frequently incorrectly adjudicated by people who are faulty human beings. Was a tennis service really out? Did a running back really step out of bounds?

Some sports disavow even facts that are proven by the rerun of a film. One hears that bad calls are “part of the game.” People who can rationalize blatant mistakes as “part of the game” are perhaps able to rationalize the worst of crimes as mere features in the human character portrait.

Christmas has always meant more to me than any other holiday — followed by the Fourth of July. To be born an American, in this country of total religious freedom, is a stupendous advantage and is almost unimaginable to people born in other countries of less providential circumstances.

These days my own personal worrying is much more concerned with my country than with myself.

Up to a point, we can all look after ourselves pretty well, but the electoral process —which does not always work perfectly — places our national fate in the hands of people such as Barack Obama, who, by ability and intent, seems too often weak where and when he should be strong.

With all that history has taught us in dealing with our adversaries, Obama seems to me to be overly painstaking in “seeing the other side’s point of view,” when it’s our side that is his prime responsibility.

We have seldom had in the White House any president who used the enormous power of this country exclusively for the good of our own people.

As we face the New Year, we tug behind us many unsolved problems of past years, and face a scary future full of countless unpredictable problems.

Today people in distant countries are doing far-out things, which shorten our confident perspective and shrink the boundaries of our safety.

Walking across a busy thoroughfare or turning into a high-speed traffic lane are problems we can handle, but even they, like other daily activities, lead to areas of macrocosmic chance.

On Alafaya Trail recently, the loss of life of two pedestrians who ignored traffic lights brought two life-stories to tragic and pointless denouements.

We all take chances that we recognize beforehand. Risks are foreseeable. But how many risks are necessary? Is every victory worth the risks taken?

“Red” Sanders, long-ago UCLA football coach, said, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”

How many of us really think of what it means to lose? How many losers know how to handle their losses?

Grantland Rice, the grand old sportswriter, revived a thought from Kipling about treating both winning and losing with absolute equanimity — if you do this, “You’ll be a man, my son.”

But you’ll still be a loser when you least expect it.