I was once involved in an "earth ball" competition. It's a simple game. There is a giant ball placed in the middle of the field. You divide the players into two teams on opposite sides of the field. The first team to move the ball to the goal on the opposite end wins.
The ball itself is massive. I believe the one we played with was ten to twelve feet high. It looked a bit like this (except it was a bit larger and heavier, so it would not have ever been this far off the ground):
I don't remember how many players there were on each side. It must have been at least a dozen and probably closer to twenty men. For some reason, I started out on the sidelines. Perhaps we were only allowing a set number on the field at once. If you can imagine the strain of having opposing forces pushing as hard as they can, you can get a mental picture of the scene. The ball ended up in a stalemate somewhere near the center of the field.
I had the bright idea that I would break up the game. I had pictures in my mind of leading the team to victory. When I got in the game, I sprinted at the ball, intending to jolt it forward. That would, of course, lead us to a breakthrough and eventually to victory.
What I did not anticipate was what happened next. I got to the ball at full speed and launched myself into the globe. Instead of pushing the pile forward, I almost immediately bounced off. I think I landed about ten feet back solidly planted on my rear end. Thankfully, there were no handheld video phones or I might have ended up on YouTube.
I guess the moral of the story is that it isn't always possible to do it all yourself. It often takes a team and a lot of sweat and tears over a sustained period of time to get major tasks accomplished.
No comments:
Post a Comment