No Sports

I remember some years ago meeting a programmer who made a remark about how different a world we would have if there weren’t any sports. “Imagine what we could accomplish when we used the money and energy from sports in more important areas like health and education,” he said.

I objected to his premise, arguing that sports was innately human. I had in mind the thought that if a world without sports and games existed, then a world without humans must be such a conclusion’s distopian prerequisite.

I still think about that brief encounter. I wonder if he was joking around, even though I don’t think he was. In a way, it was a comedy of errors: I, in my quest to defend play, was thinking too literally. He, with his offhand suggestion, was in error by so discounting spontaneity. And we both spoke past each other without having the chance to learn more.