Tuesday 29 November 2011

My brief return to the football world

Following the loss of football professional Gary Speed, I came across this sensitive tribute on David Connor's Coethica blog My comment on David's blog was as follows
Even though I never met Gary Speed, he always struck me as a very genuine, grounded professional in a sport which I have turned away from due to what I consider to be obscene amounts of money and over-inflated self-importance of most of its participants. I was surprised at how shocked I was when I heard the news and even more so hearing the cause. 
At a much lower level, I have experienced the lonely darkness of separation, running a struggling business, the spiralling, deepening abyss of its failure and the consequences which continue today 2 years later. If I’d had a heart attack or a stroke, I’m sure those around me would have found it easier to deal with. And maybe I too would have found it easier to ask for and obtain ongoing support. 
But the fact is that, being of a certain social and educational background, the expectation (from others and possibly from myself) is to “just get on with it”. It is this expectation which turns most of us into “human doings” rather than “human beings”, all for the sake of surviving in a monetary-based system in which sensitivity, empathy and co-operation are diminishing values.
RIP Gary Speed