Akeelah and the Bee
I've just watched most of the the movie which was a very good by the numbers, coming of age tale, of an intelligent black girl from an urban background winning a national spelling contest. Gladiator for kids. We had the implacable Korean robot, the funny & impulsive Hispanic & the earnest and likable black girl, as the center of an all star cast. You may think I'm taking shots at it, but truly, I'm not, it was a good film, it had pathos. I cried. I just thought the ending was shit. To let the Korean win, by choice, as his dad was an overbearing monster. That seemed to me to be a good ending. (If not particularly flattering for Koreans) You get to come back the next year and win. But no, they had to wimp out and have both kids win, equal first. Because second is for losers.

Last night I watched a couple of you tube video's that made me laugh so hard I cried until I couldn't see, one was a dog that was sleep walking, got up and ran into a wall then fell over, the other was a woman newsreader who did a loud fart on camera then fainted and the set collapsed on top of her, and it struck me as the credits rolled that the same physical effect serves many different emotions, joy, sadness, pride, shame, etc.

What it touched in me, however was something buried deep. The felling that winning isn't what matters, nor are you a loser if you come second. In fact what really matters, more than anything else, is that you finish. Tell me, which is more impressive, a world class athlete, who runs a marathon in record time, and then goes off to be interviewed and accept the applause of the crowd. Or the bloke with no legs who takes three weeks and does it on crutches. Or even the idiot that choses to run in a stupidly hot cow costume.

"Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself." [link]

You do not win, get transported to Elysium, and live out your days in glory. Mostly you just have your photo taken, pick up your things and leave.

I am reminded (again) at times like these by a Howard the duck story, "what do you do, and where do you go, the night after you saved the universe?" indeed I often feel that winners should be consoled. especially in non athletic fields of endeavour.

Getting up and doing it every day, turning up, seeing it through, finishing what you started. These are the important things is life.

First is nowhere.