Winning & Losing

So I'm back from the UCLA alumni bar after watching UCLA's heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame. And as much as I love UCLA, I'm trying to shake it off. When you cheer so hard and are around people who are just as into it, it's sometimes hard to remember that this is just a game. Just like Project Runway is just a tv show. I may have not liked the outcome, but there's no reason to dwell on it. These forms of entertainment actually only effect a very small population but it's amazing to see how many people get caught up in the whirlwind.

But I guess there's something in our human nature that attracts us to this competition, whether it is through watching sports or reality tv. And though it I do enjoy the camraderie of watching sports game and cheering on my favorite team or a good Project Runway break on a Wednesday night, every once in a while I need to remind myself that there's more than watching people win or lose, and even in my life there's more to that.

I guess it really dawned on me as I was reading A Civil Action for my Civil Procedure class. A true life storyabout contanimated wells in a small Massachussets down and trying to find justice for the families who lost children to leukemia, it was the first time I got really upset about material I've read in law school. Sure, there have been cases where I didn't agree with the jury verdict. But in this book, the lawyers representing both the families and the corporations frustrated me to no end. Maybe it's because I knew the ending of the book already, but I just wanted to throw the book across the room as these lawyers were stubbornly debating a million dollars here and there. I just felt like screaming "this money means nothing to you or your companies! Think about the families who have nothing left, think about your employees who are mortgaging their houses for this case. Just settle on something!"

Maybe it's just the risk adverse part of my personality but it's just hard to read about people who are so enthralled with the game, the winning, and the losing when there are so many more important things out there. I guess that's why I easily get frustrated about politics. Candidates pouring in millions of dollars to ads attacking each other when that money could be so much better spent actually helping people. Or political leaders who are so set in their ways that their people are dying everyday because of decisions made at the top. Whether this drive to win is because of greed, pride, or even sticking to an ideology, sometimes you just have to ask is it worth it?