"Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss." This is the line from "Wall Street" that Hal Holbrook's character says to Charlie Sheen just before Sheen is arrested, and was likely paraphrased from Friedrich Nietzsche. And it seems fitting to apply to Tyler Hamilton, based upon his book that I just read. What does that have to do with me? The choices that professional athletes make are hard ones. They are being paid to perform, and, if they don't perform, they don't get paid. While that doesn't justify the cheating that goes on, it does help to explain it to some extent.
I am an amateur MOP-triathlete. I enjoy my avocation, and can look upon it with a purity that a pro has long since lost. Why? I don't have the talent to be come close to a pro, but, thankfully, my ability to put a roof over my family's head or food on the table is not dependent on my athletic ability. Rather, it is dependent on my intellect, which, I assume since I've been doing my job for 20+ years, IS reasonably good. So, I can enjoy my athletic endeavors, and the only pressure to perform is that which I put on myself. It doesn't mean that I try any less hard. It just means that I can try (tri?) my hardest, and if I get beat by someone, it's because they were better than me on that day, and I can live with that. I can also look myself in the eye and be satisfied that I have not done anything that I would be ashamed of admitting.
Our culture deifies those that have the talent to do things that we cannot ourselves do. That's why we pay our performers (actors, musicians, athletes) enormous amounts of money to entertain us. And yet, I'm much happier being an anonymous member of society who does things, which, while being compensated not nearly as well as a performer, are just as important for the health and well-being of society.
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