empAθos Sports and Games
Sports
Competition is not one of the strong suits of empAθos culture, but we do have our recreational activities.
Among them are running, horseback riding, and archery. Running and horseback are much the same as in non-empAθos cultures. Running can take the form of simply seeing how quickly one can cover a specific distance, and horseback is, more or less, a trail riding occupation. We specify running as opposed to other field and track competitions, which have interest for us, but aren't at the heart of empAθos culture.
Children's sports activities include such things as skipping, somersault and cartwheels, and jump-rope and double dutch.
Archery is another story as our practice is somewhat different from other cultures. The object of empAθos archery is to make as many aimed shots as possible with a one minute time frame. The flights must be rapid and the must be aimed. Shots that miss the target are not counted. A good archer can let fly nine arrows, all of them hitting the target, in one minute. An excellent archer can let fly as many as twelve. A truly excellent archer can get all twelve in the centre of the target. This is ground sport archery. A version of this is also performed from horseback at a gallop.
Meditative archery is a different story. This form of empAθos archery is less related to the rapidity of flights, or hitting the target, and more related to a sense of unity between the archer, the bow, the arrow and the target. This form of archery is far different from sport archery, as it's performed very slowly. The analogy of a drop of water being released from a leaf to the ground, is used to describe the release of the arrow. The archer releases the flight only when the flight is ready to go. Even the aim of hitting the target is unimportant. The important point is at the release of the arrow.
empAθos archery is always a target sport, as hunting is forbidden, except in times of deadly need, when survival depends upon it.
empAθos people also enjoy juggling and acrobatics, such as one might see in a performance of Cirque du Soleil. Watching and even trying to do some of the things that the performers do, is great fun, even if clumsiness gets in the way.
Games
empAθos people love gambling games. Blackjack and poker are favorites, and this love comes from such traditional games as dreidle. Poker is a fine game for exercising and fine-tuning empathic skills, and is much enjoyed by empAθos people. Blackjack is an exercise in math and probability. And, gambling with a few dollars has an exhilaration that empAθos people enjoy. Winning and losing are less important than having fun, and a few dollars spent on the entertainment of the game is viewed in much the same way as a few dollars spent on the entertainment of a movie. Gambling is treated in much the same way as a night out to the movies of a trip to a restaurant. Money is thus budgeted in the same manner, as an entertainment.
Other card games, that don't involve money, are also popular, and single player games such as solitaire provide an escape into oneself and away from continual interaction and empathic overload.
Board games such as chess, go and checkers are also popular as social lubricants, and the competitive nature of them is mostly ignored for the conversation that they promote.
Aggressiveness and Competitiveness in Games
empAθos people view sports and games first as a means toward self improvement, and second as a means of social interaction. Competition is far down on the list, and there are no winners or losers, except in how much one learns about oneself, and how much one improves one's skills. Competition is a natural part of life, and presents itself on a daily basis in everyday activities, but empAθos culture is evolving away from competition as a daily model and more toward cooperative endeavours as a means of development and social survival. Therefore, competition as a survival mechanism, especially for the culture as a whole, and in service to the people within the empAθos culture is seen as inevitable, but competition between two empAθos individuals is seen as serving no useful purpose, and presents more problems than it solves. Two archers testing their skills together will help each other improve those skills, instead of trying to best each other. Instead of saying, "I'm better that you." They will encourage each other in their efforts.
Games that involve violence, whether simulated or real, are not considered appropriate in empAθos society. The one exception that comes closest to this type of game is sumo wrestling. Most empAθos people are too slight of build for this sort of activity, but as a spectator sport, it's greatly enjoyed, especially for its ceremony, attention to form and for its sportsmanship.
Aggressiveness and competitiveness is seen as a distraction from the enjoyment of the game. This sort of selfishness and violence only serves to make ones opponent feel badly, and to profit at their expense. Even in gambling, the exchange of the money is considered an expression of the ebb and flow of tides and time. To "clean someone out" is considered bad sportsmanship, and gives the other players cause to not want include one in future games. The one who wins all of the games all of the time, soon finds no one who will play with them, especially if they gloat about winning.
|
