"Beauty confronts us with the requirement that we place ourselves among...the redeemers, the leaders in the protection of life. Once you have seen the bush on fire, you are not going to get out of the assignment unless you close your eyes to the beauty.... [You] either have to close your eyes or go back to Egypt and set the people free." - Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, "Rising to the Challenge of Our Times"

Monday, January 07, 2008

The Arena

I have to confess that I watched the first, oh, 20 minutes of the new American Gladiators show last night. And a little bit more tonight while I was at the gym. It's even possible that there is some correlation between having watched American Gladiators and being at the gym tonight. The show has some flaws and doesn't seem to have been all that well thought out in places (you're saying to yourself, 'Oh really? Not that well thought out? Hm).

But one part that was personally quite interesting and / or distressing to watch was the female competitor who appeared to have blown out her ACL and maybe a few other knee ligaments in the first event. "Powerball" is quite similar to football in that you're trying to run around with a ball and some big scary Gladiator chick is trying (quite successfully, in the case of poor Jessie Adams of Donahue, IA) to flatten you. The article doesn't say exactly what injury she sustained, but it was classic: she got knocked down with her foot sort of out sideways, got up limping and tried to keep running on it, then it just buckled under her and she fell the next time she planted her foot to stop and turn around. Something like that. A few minutes later they showed her on crutches with a knee immobilizer. I couldn't find a Youtube video of it yet. Maybe later.

Football seems like a much simpler way to...gladiate. I don't understand why I find the idea of these combative games so appealing, and the reality of them (to the degree I've experienced it) so scary. Maybe when it comes to appetite for warrioring, my eyes are a bit bigger than my stomach. However, if not for my knee and the expenses arising therefrom I would definitely have gone back for another season of football, scared or not. I was less scared at the end than I was when I started. That's something.

11 comments:

adamf said...

I loved that show when I was younger! Is it exactly the same, or have they added any new bells and whistles?

wordsfromhome said...

I hope that I inferred correctly that you are NOT planning an appearance as a poundee on AG any time soon....

Emily said...

adam: I can't remember, it seems similar except that Hulk Hogan really brings a lot of class to the show this time around. Seems they have some bugs to work out. For example, in the Eliminator competition, they have people swim under the burning swimming pool right before they do the handbike, which means that people's hands are all wet and their hands slip off the handles. And it seemed really rude that they start interviewing the winner of the Eliminator before the other competitor has finished...give her a moment, for pity's sake! I was impressed by some of the action though...people really get the stuffing knocked out of them in Powerball. And Joust is always fun, where they hit each other with the big padded sticks.

words from home: Don't be jealous that I'm training to be a cage fighter.

George said...

Nah, you are both wrong. Where its at is the Luchadores and Lucha Libre wraslin. They are much more agile and perform way more cool acrobatic moves than their US counterparts. From Wiki, we read this: "Luchadores in the lighter divisions compensate for their lack of power by using the wrestling ring's ropes to catapult themselves towards their opponents, using intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession, and applying complex submission holds."

Most of my Diaconos are into wrasliin. I am lookin for some good videos. Imagine being able to have skills in "applying complex submission holds." Could be better than nunchucks.

adamf said...

Yeah--I think Joust was my favorite. I even tried it once at a highschool party but Isaac knocked my off pretty quick. I probably needed some more "intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession."

George said...

Intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession are way good skills to have especially in the face of illegal brown human beings stalking our emergency rooms or lone black men waiting to kidnap our kids at the shopping mall. If you can't have those skills then we just all might buy plastic Glocks.

Emily said...

And if all that wasn't enough, there's the gay conspiracy to undermine the moral fabric of society. It's hard to understand where all these biases come from and what purpose they serve for human beings. It seems like everybody needs to have somebody to pin their negative feelings on, or their "shadow," I suppose. Everyone has a shadow but the people who think they're above having one are the most dangerous, it really runs amok with them. The "Thank you God for making me better than other people" type...perhaps we've read about them in a book somewhere... :)

adamf said...

There was a really funny bit in The Office where Oscar, the "token" gay character (they also have a "token" black man, both intentionally) is at a wedding and he says something like "I would like to get married, but I won't because it will threaten the marriages of my heterosexual friends."

Bellabell said...

"I don't understand why I find the idea of these combative games so appealing, and the reality of them (to the degree I've experienced it) so scary."

Okay,Em--I've got the answer to the second part of this riddle down pat. You find the reality of these combative games so scary BECAUSE OF REASON! JUDMENT! COMMON SENSE! The well-known practicality of the female of the species!

As to the appeal, that's where I draw an absolute blank. Your have titled your blogsite "Hamartia, etc." Which, being translated, usually comes out "tragic flaw," but more modern versions simply say "mis-step." A wrong move. Anybody can make a wrong step, turn an ankle, break both ankles going down a firepole, that sort of everyday thing. But when someone seeks OUT steps to miss, or mess, or mangle, etc., then it's all Greek to me. And that's all I can say. Except that whatever steps you take, or miss, you're still my hero.

wordsfromhome said...

Bellabell-
Thank you for your profound words here. I second your opinion on this subject!

Emily said...

Oh, reason not the need. ;)

You're right, though, in that football playing was hamartia in more than one way. Nevertheless, I have more regret that I can't keep playing than I do about having played. Common sense and good judgment won the war, with a little help from the billing departments of the hospital, the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and the physical therapist.