Thought for the Day 4th April

TFTD
4th April 2009
Rob Marshall

Good morning.
It’s the Grand National this afternoon. What better way to cast aside all thoughts of diplomacy and summits than to sit back and enjoy this truly amazing spectacle of showmanship and drama.

The day, of course, will not be without controversy. There have already been fatalities amongst the horses at the Aintree Meeting. There are massive concerns in Britain about the level of gambling. Then there’s the size of the fences, the use of the whip and the never ending debate about whether hard bred racehorses actually enjoy hurtling over Beeches Brook.

But, and it might well be simply because we all need distractions from the more serious issues of life, we all love a spectacle, millions of people across the world will tune in and, t’was ever thus.

In Greek and Roman civilisations, similar races took place, though with chariots. Indeed, the earliest account of a horse & chariot race occurs in Homer’s description of the funeral of Patroclus. The crowd were captivated and enthralled. It was about the noise, the battle, the form book being turned upside down - the victor and the vanquished. Such titanic battles have always been the stuff of legend - heroes are made and expectations raised.

I believe any kind of race really needs to be competitive in nature. How ridiculous it is to suggest, as some have, that you can have a race without feeling the need to win.

But even whilst enjoying the spectacle and admitting that winning is always, well better than losing, there remains the basic point – and this is also a simple spiritual allegory of life itself – that it is the taking part and the sharing in the spectacle where most lasting satisfaction is gained.

There is an undercurrent in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament Psalms and the New Testament Epistles, where human life is described as a race (against time) with hurdles to overcome.

And winning or losing – affects us for a short while but we quickly move on - even if we lose this particular heat - we easily regroup for the next. There’s a constant desire to try again.

Each day, each job, each cadence of life is a similar challenge. The race towards the winning post goes on through life.

That’s probably why, despite some genuine concerns, we enjoy the spectacle of the Grand National. As Pierre de Coubertin, said: "The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought (or to have run) well."