Sports fans and casual observers alike have a soft heart for those that have reached the summit in their particular sport. Names such as Rocky Marciano, Carl Lewis, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Joe Montana are firmly etched in the minds and hearts of men.
Lessons from Sports Icons
Still more examples, the achievements of a Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, or Lance Armstrong transcend their individual fields. Their actions in the arena, character, fierce determination, and “whatever it takes” attitude transcend sports. These men provide individuals with examples and lessons for life.
The highest virtues displayed in the struggle - toward efforts that produce societal good, are critical for the thriving and prosperity of mankind. Jordan's determination in consistently scoring 40+ points per game, while being double- or tripled-team, is applicable to a scientist, somewhere in a lab, looking for advances in cancer research, while being stymied due to a lack of funding or resistance from colleagues and peers.
Jordan: the man who failed to make the basketball team as a sophomore in high school.
Ali's "can do" and exceedingly confident attitude to defeat opponents such as Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, and George Foreman, is an inspiration applicable to a public school teacher driven to stretch the intellectual horizons of students. Or applicable to a new Marine 2nd lieutenant headed for Iraq.
Lance Armstrong: cursed with cancer, rose to become the best ever in the field of cycling.
Legends and Human Potential
These icons, through their actions - like the famous kings and warriors from antiquity, transcend sports. They provide a template for what should be common man's attitude toward his own life, in his own society, in his own time period. They show what’s possible and shattered previous notions of human limitations. Their lives reveal something about human potentiality that each of us – individually – have yet to discover (about our own self).
In General Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech to West Point, "Duty, Honor, Country," he eloquently describes for us what it can be like for an adventurer to heed a rallying cry, and to pursue a worthy goal.
"They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness; the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life."
Today, as in ancient times, we erect public monuments that immortalize everything these mythical legends have revealed about the human spirit.
Manny Pacquiao certainly has attained the level of heroism in his native Philippines. He is on the verge of attaining this same threshold on the global stage. Floyd Mayweather, with a resounding victory, can begin to answer once and for all, that he was right all along. That he possesses the kind of skills that no other boxer has, a convincing rebuttal to critics.
Pacquiao vs. Mayweather provides not just answers. Pacquiao vs. Mayweather IS an answer - on a plethora of levels.
Transcendence into Everyday Life
The accumulated benefits, life examples, displays of courage and honor, showmanship, pride and determination; the inspiration that swell up with young and old alike; the reach into the forgotten corners of the globe, the idea that man controls his own destiny in his hands. These are societal inflection points. They allow pent up questions, musings, and frustrations to be collectively burst upon the grandest stage, a collective blow up that brings "balance" to all involved, after the eventuality.
Thrilla in Manila transcended boxing - it was a prize fight that caused each common man to self-reflect on his own unique Apotheosis. Conservatism or Progressivism? Tradition or the New? Game 7 between Magic and Bird transcended basketball because each one had reason to pause, and reflect on Flash vs. Humility. Showmanship vs. Teamwork. Transformational events pose questions regarding boxing and prize fighting. True. Should it not occur, the magnitude of the effect also transcend boxing.
We will never know something about ourselves.
This fall, we cannot explore the infinite graces of loyalty to one's country, of the intrinsic value of giving to others. We, ultimately as human brothers and sisters, are all connected by a common thread. Each of us may not fully comprehend, nor is there a requirement to. In our obsessive following of Pacquiao and Mayweather, we ARE, through that indispensable link, LIVING through their lives. Pacquiao is the Hero archetype. Mayweather is the Child and Trickster archetype. The archetype lives, resides, is permanently embedded WITHIN each and every one of us. It is in our collective unconscious. We harbor the archetypes, it is a matter of whether we live it through and through - it is a matter of whether or not what we have on the inside, materializes on the outside world.
Personal Destiny
Pacquiao vs. Mayweather on the outside world, through that mysterious ethereal link, is a battle within us. Which archetype within us dominates more. "The world is within me." We have searched for these answers in our waking ours, in our conversations with ourselves - when we look in the mirror, at night in our dreams.
Do we pursue a heroic adventure, for the common good? Do I become resolute in the face of trials? What benefits shall I provide for my brothers or sisters?
Or do we pursue material goods, money, glory, fame?
For the benefit of others? Or for our own benefit?
These questions, born from the archetypes, of the less understood ether, are forced upon us. "A life unexamined is a life not worth living," said Socrates. Transcendent events, in this case, is a collision of two distinct prize fighters carrying two distinct philosophies. Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, the brutal match, reformulates pound for pound rankings on magazines. It can be an entrance to boxing's Parthenon. This fight, as a transcendent inflection point, help each of us come to grips with our own selves, how we in our own way define life success or failure.
Comments
Very exciting your 4 series so far like pacman the most exciting boxer in history. Are you a Filipino?
What a journalism masterpiece!
I am really amazed of how Mr. Dumon has wrote this kind of article. So infomartive, intriguing, and so brilliant. I am an Accounting graduate but I just can't write articles such comprehensive like this one. I love boxing so much that's why I have been reading Mr. Dumon's series of write-ups about the Pacquiao-Mayweather "imagination-promoted" fight. I'm truly wishing that this grandest fight would come to reality and settle once and for all the claim of Money Floyd that he's truly the best and to establish that Manny Pacquiao is indeed greater than Money Floyd. Thank you Mr. Dumon and God Bless! Mabuhay and Pilipinas and Long Live America!
Thanks mr marvin for your very nice article ,im an avid fan of pacman,but after after i read all your wrote ,i started becoming your fan, keep up the good work for the job well done, mabuhay Pilipinas perlas ng silangan
Thanks mr marvin for your very nice article ,im an avid fan of pacman,but after i read it all that your wrote ,i was to be started becoming your fan, keep up the good work for the job well done, mabuhay Pilipinas perlas ng silangan
Again, a literary masterpiece. Marv delivers this time with more passion and intimacy. Can't wait for the next. This series should be put together in a book and I'll be the first to get a copy.
marvz you have a stunning commentaries this time... i love it....
cant wait also for part 5 - 7
Awesome article.. two thumbs up!
What an article!!!Simply fantastic. Highly educational and entertaining. More of this Mr. Dumon. I like your style. I completely agree with your views. I am also a book author in another area of knowledge, but I suddenly become a fan of yours. More of this please in the future. I hope you could also write something about our other sports heroes, like Flash Elorde, Ceferino Garcia, Pancho Villa, and the others who also deserve some few words in our history. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS brother.
Mr. Dumon, in journalism, I sincerely think, you are also a heavyweight.
great article dud!very scholarly!whew!
cant really imagine how can you able to put boxing in a philosophical perspective.Joseph Campbell meets Larry Merchant!!!Great great Thought,Marv!More of this!!!!Bravo!!!
to all journalists please help the people of davao city, philippines. the mayor of this city is making the people of davao city look like monkeys after denying that he is not the mastermind of the killings in davao city.please make surveys, you journalists!!!make a hotline number and make the people answer "who's behind the killings in davao city?" let's show to the world that not all davaoenyos are monkeys. thanks marv you're a great journalist!!! hatton will get knocked out in first round like what happened to erik morales.
Robert i think people of davao don't mind about this killings because these are criminals and Delinquents that gives threat to peaceful people of Davao. Now Davao is peaceful bacause criminals are afraid of the mayor.
Still we are not sure that the mayor is the master mind of this killings. but if that so then be it, he did a good job. So if you're not a monkey don't be afraid or else you die.
To the author:
Wow what a superb article. It seems to me you are a follower of an Asian philosophies and a practitioner of the wisdom of the far east.
I'm so happy that this author, I guess, a westerner, have come a across the idea of Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Thick Black theory.
Lastly I'm glad you talk about a our hero, pacquiao.
i'm just worried because my brother lives in davao city and he is a mestizo. he looks like de la hoya and he is afraid because there are people who are insecure of him when it comes to womanizing. he can be killed due to insecurity of other people like what happened to ferdie lintuan (famous journalist) and ferranzini(famous businessman)of davao city. these two were not criminals and they were killed the DEATH SQUAD WAY (motorcycle-riding gunmen).let's just hope the killings will stop.some people are not afraid to die because they know they are ugly.
how many people have been killed in davao recently?
Big ups to you mr. Dumon. This series of articles you're wrighting deserves a prize. Mr. Dumon, I'm from the bay area and I wish that you put this on the news paper. This needs to be in the sport column of the EXAMINER. Poeple has to read your articles about boxing so they'll be more aware of the boxing world and so they will have more interest in boxing again. Boxing will never die if writers like you puts this master piece on news papers.
Thank you.
Big ups to you mr. Dumon. This series of articles you're wrighting deserves a prize. Mr. Dumon, I'm from the bay area and I wish that you put this on the news paper. This needs to be in the sport column of the EXAMINER. Poeple has to read your articles about boxing so they'll be more aware of the boxing world and so they will have more interest in boxing again. Boxing will never die if writers like you puts this master piece on news papers.
Thank you.
great article.2 thumbs up..
Pacquio by TKO
MMA Philippines
Mixed Martial Arts Philippines
www.mmpahilippines.net
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