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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Competition: How Important Do YOU Think the Caucus Race Is, After All?
A few days ago, I participated in a national championship race with 1800 competitors. The competition was fierce—but only three people in each five-year male and female age group won prizes (gold, silver and bronze, just like in the Olympics). The rest, hopefully, had a good time, did not get hurt running and biking for over an hour (two plus hours for most) and felt good about the experience.
How do you feel about competition? Do you have enough of it in your life, or way too much? Do you welcome or avoid it? Do you think competition is overemphasized in our schools and work settings? What about our national focus on spectator sports—do you sometimes think these competitions are taken rather too seriously?
The proper place of competition in a healthy life is a much-debated topic in mental health circles; as far as I can tell, there is little consensus. As a lifelong athlete, I enjoy competition but I recognize there's a price to pay, that competition has a dark side. Decades ago, I started thinking about these kinds of questions, perhaps a bit more than my fellow athletes who all seem committed to the unbounded joys and benefits of competition. An essay by a favorite writer of the time, Stephen Jay Gould, might have sparked my active interest. Gould wrote a piece in Natural History ("This View of Life," November, 1996, pp. 22-33). Gould quoted from The Dodo and the Caucus Race, found in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In the third chapter of Alice, all the characters, after getting thoroughly soaked, have a discussion about the best way to dry off. The dodo says, "The best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus race." He then lays out a circular track and lines everyone up at random starting places. "There was no`One, two, three, and away!' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half and hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out, 'The race is over!' The participants were puzzled and asked, 'But who has won?' This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it stood for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, 'Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'"
That's how it is today with kids races that are found before or after almost all triathlons and road races in which adults compete against each other—with no prizes save for the few winners. Maybe we should organize the adult races along the lines of the kiddies' runs.
I say that, but I don't mean it, believe it or think it's a good idea, nor would I want anything to do with a race wherein all must have prizes.
On the other hand, I say, let's have Caucus races in schools, workplaces and throughout society. There can always be optional chances for those of us who enjoy harmless competitions to play our games and, on occasions, to feel swift and strong, and sometimes brave and smart, at least for the moment, though we really know better. But, as Gould remarked, there is much to be said for the approach demonstrated by Lewis Carroll's wise dodo: "No judgments of superiority or inferiority among participants; no winners or losers and cooperation with ends attained and prizes for all."
So, I am of two minds: prizes for all, but not in selected events where awards go only to the swift and fortunate.
Gould notes that some achievements (examples might include playing the piano, competing in triathlons and hitting home runs) are done better by some than others and deserve acknowledgment and reward. However, on matters pertaining to the intrinsic and ultimate worth of a human life, or the ability to live in accord with known precepts for REAL wellness, the judge of the caucus race appears to be the wisest of men.
Stay well, go fast if this appeals to you and always look on the bright side of life.
Note: An earlier version of his essay first appeared here on April 24, 2001, then entitled, "Competition, Self-Management and the Dodo Bird-A Lesson for Wellness Seekers."
Domain: physicalSubdomain: exercise and fitness
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