Society: July 2004 Archives

The more people I meet, the more it seems that competitiveness is seen as a major character flaw, and as a competitive person, I think that this has the potential to be a bit of a problem.

For example, I play Ultimate Frisbee. So does a coworker. She said that the guys on her team give her a hard time because she doesn't take the game seriously, and doesn't really try very hard. It's not because she is out of shape, or that she doesn't know the rules, it's that she doesn't want to "play that way". This means that since she is there purely for the fun aspect of it, she won't try to make good plays. She putters around on the field and won't really try to get open to get the disc, won't really try to intercept it unless it is going to hit her. Her reasoning is that she has had enough of "that type" of play. Competitiveness only breeds bad or hurt feelings on at least one side, and she wants no part of this.

Rose and I spent Saturday afternoon watching movies. It was fun; we watched Ron Mann's "Grass" and "Le Nèg'" from Robert Morin. It's the latter which is more interesting for me, because I am a Black man in Quebec and I don't smoke pot, (well, I don't buy pot, but I'll smoke it is offered...I'm not a pot-head, okay?). Without giving you a review of the film, I'll take a few elements of the film and relate them to my experiences.

Rose et moi ont passé l'aprés-midi samedi en regardant des films. C'était l'fun; on a regardé "Grass" de Ron Mann et "Le Nèg'" de Robert Morin. C'est le dernier qui et plus intéressant pour moi, parce que je suis un Noir au Québec, et je fume pas (ben, j'achète pas le pot, mais j'en fumerais si c'est offert...chuis pas un pot-head, oké!). Sans vous donner un revue du film, je vais prendre quelques éléments du film et les relier à mes expériences.