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and I don't ask forgiveness for it. But yes, I do think the arts, which speak to basic human desires and needs and wants and our condition as human beings, is far, far, far more important than sport.
But as I said, as long as people are willing to pay the prices that allow Shaq to make what he does, all the power to Shaq.
I just wish that americ would turn off the sports worship crap, and begin to embrace thinking, the arts, and intellectual development.
Not that sports are bad ipso facto - obviously, we should all also take care of our bodies - but I am digruntled at the huge percentage of americans who place far more importance on some baseball players ERA than they do on what jasper johns, warhol, or michelangelo were saying about the human condition.
I can totally appreciate a football game played well - in fact, when I do watch football, I don't really watch it with the eye that one team is God's chosen and the other isn't. I just want to see true professionals playing each other to the best of their ability. And Shaq is, though he is basketball which I plain don't like, for all intents and purposes, an **amazingly** gifted basketball player and plays with absolute artistry. Like Jordan - simply amazing to watch.
But ultimtely, their skill as artists, such as it is, will not last long; whereas teh art of the real artists who work in painting, music, dance, sculpture, etc., their art will last for a long, long time.
Obviously, this is me being subjective, but I think I'm right. I find it very sad that the art that actually speaks to humanity, and has real releveance beyond a liminal present-based enpspeakiture (like sports, N'Stink, Janet Jackson's boob, and Thomas Kinkade, etc.), gets ignoresd while sports figures get ticker tape parades in NYC. That disgusts me. Not to belie the artistry of sports people, but to give them equal weight of importance with John Glenn, Lindberg, etc., is truly a travesty that speaks highly of why the US is often despised in the world.
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