28 July 2021
There are two versions of the same message framed in completely different ways. The first is Sir Winston Churchill’s KBO: Keep Buggering On meaning just don’t quit. That message, in the words of a rigorously thoughtful contemporary philosopher sounds something like this:
To live well is to act so as to move toward achieving the best goods of which one is capable and so as to become the kind of agent capable of achieving those goods. —MacIntyre, 2016
A vivid example of this concept was illustrated in May of this year.
As some of you may know, the sport I best understand is soccer. From the moment I saw the German national team, and their disciplined and relatively Stoic approach to the game, I was a fan. Within the German league (the Bundesliga), my team is Bayern Munich.
For those who don’t know the game, most teams have what is referred to as a “number nine,” with the person wearing that jersey being most likely (and intentionally positioned) to score goals. Bayern Munich arguably has the best striker in the world as their number nine, Robert Lewandowski (the “w” is pronounced as a “v”). His teammates call him “Der Bomber!”
Until this year, a now deceased great named Gerd Muller held the title for the highest number of goals ever scored in a single season: 40. Muller scored those 40 goals playing 34 games in a 40-game season. Lewandowski broke the record playing only 29 games of the recently ended ‘20-‘21 season. Why so few? Because he had been injured having to miss six games.
By the final three or four games of the season, my dear wife and I knew we were watching less for the team’s sake than to see Lewandowski break the record. The tension was high because it was equally obvious that the team was thinking the same way. By the second last game he had equalled Muller’s 40. Surely, he could score one more goal.
In the final game of the season, the energy of the entire world-wide Bayern Munich family was focused on one thing: break that record. Not, win the game, trounce the opponent, but break that record. Lewandowski had seven shots that night. But despite the entire team feeding him everything they could find, he didn’t seem able to close the deal. Some games go that way. But what was so impressive is that Lewandowski refused to say “uncle.” In the 90th minute (soccer games last 90 minutes), he had one last touch which he converted to a goal, breaking Muller’s record.
The moment I saw it, I knew I would write about it because of Der Bomber’s relentless tenacity. He never gave up hope, not even in the last minute. And while life doesn’t always pay us so handsomely for such tenacity, that really is not the point. What strikes me, after reflecting on Lewandowski’s feat, is that he really couldn’t lose. If he failed to score the 41st he would always know, I never quit, I never lost faith, I never said “uncle.” To me, that’s the real achievement because in those final minutes, Lewandowski met MacIntyre’s standard: he became the kind of agent capable of achieving those goods. He just kept buggering on.
Dan Chalykoff is working toward an M.Ed. in Counselling Psychology and accreditation in Professional Addiction Studies. He writes these blogs to increase (and share) his own evolving understandings of ideas. Since 2017, he has facilitated two voluntary weekly group meetings of SMART Recovery.
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