I have really missed football and all other forms of sport. Following my partner's death the whole world grinding to a halt was exactly what I didn't need.
But the end of this month would be the absolute end of the football season. It's pissing down in Devon today, cricket should be under way. Tennis clubs should be thinking how they will regenerate interest now Wimbledon's gone. Athletes should be wondering about getting race fit for perhaps a couple of late season meets to start the build up to next year's Olympics. Football should be planning what to do next season in every possible scenario and worrying about the survival of some of its clubs.
Sport is as important to our long-term mental and physical health as many medicines. We could survive without it, but not in the industrialised urban over-populated shape we are in today. Sport, relaxation, entertainment and socialisation form the fabric that holds an advanced industrial and commercial economy together. Without it we won't have health anymore because we'll all be too tranqued up. The choice between sport and health exists only within a tiny window. At some point we do have to choose to live. The risk of any one of us dying of coronavirus is very much the same as the risk was of any one of us dying this year in any case. So living in fear isn't a good choice either, but trying to re-live the time lost to the virus seems mental. If the lockdown had started in early November and it was now mid-January I could see the point ……… but once the season's gone its gone.
Get a bat (not a pangolin) out. Sort out your grip for that outswinger. Shine an old ball up and see if you can get some reverse swing ……… Get your throw up sorted for that serve. Dust off the starting blocks ………
Long term those thing we regard in lockdown as distractions are our reasons for being. We don't live to be healthy. We try to be healthy so we can live more.
But the end of this month would be the absolute end of the football season. It's pissing down in Devon today, cricket should be under way. Tennis clubs should be thinking how they will regenerate interest now Wimbledon's gone. Athletes should be wondering about getting race fit for perhaps a couple of late season meets to start the build up to next year's Olympics. Football should be planning what to do next season in every possible scenario and worrying about the survival of some of its clubs.
Sport is as important to our long-term mental and physical health as many medicines. We could survive without it, but not in the industrialised urban over-populated shape we are in today. Sport, relaxation, entertainment and socialisation form the fabric that holds an advanced industrial and commercial economy together. Without it we won't have health anymore because we'll all be too tranqued up. The choice between sport and health exists only within a tiny window. At some point we do have to choose to live. The risk of any one of us dying of coronavirus is very much the same as the risk was of any one of us dying this year in any case. So living in fear isn't a good choice either, but trying to re-live the time lost to the virus seems mental. If the lockdown had started in early November and it was now mid-January I could see the point ……… but once the season's gone its gone.
Get a bat (not a pangolin) out. Sort out your grip for that outswinger. Shine an old ball up and see if you can get some reverse swing ……… Get your throw up sorted for that serve. Dust off the starting blocks ………
Long term those thing we regard in lockdown as distractions are our reasons for being. We don't live to be healthy. We try to be healthy so we can live more.