Seeking a record
We can all agree that competitions can be fun. Not all competitions but we do tend to make it into something larger than life. No matter the sport no matter the place someone will be trying to be better than the person beside them. But if you want to try something interesting go look at a book of world records. Move beyond the obvious ones like who ran fastest or who climbed highest. Go for the silly things. Look for the person that ate the most pudding in the session. And it works for more than people I have a fond memory of going camping with a big crate or cardboard box if you will of marshmallows. I had no intention of eating them but I found a couple of dogs on the beach and they were keen. Who could eat the most. Until they could not. Dogs are perhaps wiser than humans and they know when to move away and look for something better to do with their time. I made it through high school with only a minimum amount of competition. When we climbed those large ropes in the gymnasium we were playing with a watch but the real game was to keep from falling off and getting hurt. How do you spot for an event like that. And so we move back to the classroom ended things are much less dangerous. Who could complete the largest number of quadratic equation solutions in a day. Just for the record it was not me. I turned from competition to music if only for my sanity. We do not give awards for the person who gets through the piece of music before all the rest. Oh I’m sure there’s a competition summers but not one that I have come across. Similarly if you told someone that you had watched a large number of movies they knew the secret. It takes a lot of time. Looking for a speed reader? Don’t waste your time. And so I am now left to check the weather records. Was this the coldest day in the last month? I think you know that it does not matter. There will always be something else coming along that will take the record away. And so when you watch sports or check the financial pages know that someone is looking for a record at the end of the day. It turns us all into people armed with a keen eye and a stop watch. Not much else.
