Wait, who?
To the many Americans that will see the headline "Tony Gwynn Dies" scroll along the bottom-line of ESPN or CNN or see the trending topic "RIP Tony Gwynn" on Twitter, the reaction will be "that's sad" or "who?" He is one of the greatest athletes of the last 30 years (or even of all time), and yet he is one of the most unknown.
If you don't know him, go on ahead and budget 4 minutes to learn about him. Here, I'll help. Just watch this. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11092503. I'll wait.
Amazed? Bewildered? How could someone this good at his sport be so unknown? The answer to this question reflects more on the nature of our culture and society rather than on the achievements of one Tony Gwynn.
Tony Gwynn is known as one of the best people to play the game of baseball. Fellow Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin said of Gwynn "he a great competitor, and a great person" (per twitter account, @BLarkin_ESPN). He was known as someone who gave back to his community of San Diego, a place that he played his entire collegiate and professional career in. He was friendly to the media, tipped his hat to the fans when they recognized him, and was always first to honor those around him. He was not the center of scandal, lived a quiet life in the spotlight, and played the game that was his job the way it was supposed to be played.
...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely the issue.
Take a look at the headlines. Listen to the radio. Watch a little clip of the news, or better yet, just watch 30 seconds of E. Do this and you will notice a trend: we thrive on the negative. Now, we will never come right out and state it, but we tend to remember things that are the opposite of how they should be. We will watch the Kardashians duke it out on tv, drama unfold on Dance Moms, and dedicate 4 hours of sports coverage to where the location of the party that Johnny Manziel was at last night. We idolize and celebrate those things which are extrordinarily negative and off the wall (in a negative way).
We don't say we love the negative, though. Nobody would say that. We tend to mask it with labels like "drama" or "things getting interesting." Just look at this year's NBA Finals. Instead of headlines celebrating the beauty of a team that is centered around fundamentals and good team chemistry, most commentary surrounded around LeBron cramps, D-Wade failures, and a general dislike for the most polarizing team in the league, the Miami Heat. We seek out the flaws, the bad and the dirty, so much so that those things which are good, clean, and fun are muddled and forgotten.
Just like Gwynn; one of the greatest hitters that was forgotten because of steroids (along with Jim Thome, Griffey Jr., and many others). It is very easy for us to remember the misses in life, allowing those to overshadow the hits.
This even happens in our own lives. When heavy traffic hits on the way into the office, we see the moron who just learned to drive yesterday instead of the hilarious sparrows fighting for food on the sidewalk just beside us. When the power goes out, we yell out the window at the power company since it is their fault instead of taking the welcome break from technology to enjoy the simple things surrounding us. When relationships fail, we simply remember the negative aspects because of the hurt we have experienced. In the Film (500) Days of Summer, Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recalls all the things he loves about Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel), yet those very things are the things he rattles off later as things he hates about her. Our perception in the midst of tragedy can either take us deeper into the negative or brings us up out into the positive.
Those negative things, when they happen, tend to be what we end up defining ourselves by. We know what bad we have done and allow that to be the lens through which we view life. Failures and mistakes tend to be much stronger emotions, and those emotions connect memories, and those memories are tough to erase. The thing is, though, we don't have to be bound to those negative things. The strong bonds of mistakes and failures were broken long ago by someone Who's love brought Him to earth to restore a relationship that was defined as broken. He mended it though, asking that we merely accept this gift and dedicate ourselves to Him. What's crazy is that He provides hope and a new outlook on life, one defined by love joy and peace rather than hate depression and discord. One that celebrates those things that are just, that are pure, that are lovely. The innocent is praised, and the condemned is redeemed. All made possible by Christ's sacrifice on the cross and defeat of sin via the resurrection.
So, today, there will be a temptation to see the negative in the world surrounding. Why don't we purpose in our hearts and our lives to show people the hope and positive, and celebrate those things which are good? This doesn't mean we naively ignore the fact that the negative is there, but rather use the power of Christ to change the negative into positive.
And celebrate the good guys. Rest in peace, Tony Gwynn.
