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Show 1 " J--i-fyTom Haraldsen The end of a year brings with it reflection on the past, and hope for the future. It has been an eventful one for local athletes, from Holly Cook's and Kenna Bailey's nationally-prominent achievements on ice to the state championships enjoyed by Bountiful High in baseball and Viewmont High in soccer last spring. As with any facet of life, the year 1988 brought disappointments and achievements. We cheered when our favorite teams won and mourned when they lost. And there were moments when, even briefly, we wondered to ourselves if "how we played the game" was truly more important than gaining a victory. As with any prep sportswriter, I made some discoveries that were both eye-opening and depressing. This was the year that those athletes I cover seemed to get younger (as I got older). It was the year that I found myself spending less time watching the athletes and more time looking at their mothers (the ones that were single, that is). Yes, I'm afraid that the years are flying by. But if I may be serious for a moment, I'd like to use the metaphor of sports to convey a stronger message, a lesson I continue to learn each day of my life that cannot be denied, even if I am guilty at times of ignoring it. I reflect back to a lesson I heard recently at my church, a lesson that began be-gan when the instructor drew images on the board representing sports. Though the drawings were crude in nature, we somehow identified each rendering. There was a golf course, a tennis court, a basketball floor and a baseball diamond. Then, there was the Earth, and the theme of his lesson became, simply, the game of life. It was here that I began to draw my own metaphors, and thus developed the thought for this column. In any athletic event, there are referees, officials, offi-cials, or judges. We often protest their decisions, disagreeing with calls or rulings that we think are in error. Occasionally they arc wrong, as they make calls from their vantage points only without, perhaps, all the facts. But ultimately, they are the ones given that power to judge, to make those rulings, while we are not. How often do we, in life, show that same intolerance or indifference for authority? How many times do we try to judge others whom we arc not in a position to judge, without all the facts, while looking at it from just our vantage van-tage points? I know of no one who is not guilty of this to some degree. Certainly Cer-tainly I am on a regular basis. Utah is a unique and special place to live. Those whose ancestors came here did so because of persecution they received elsewhere from those who wrongfully judged them. You would think we could have learned from that experience. Sadly, it seems we have not. Only one perfect person has ever lived on this Earth, and it was His birth which we celebrated last Sunday. Each day of our lives should be spent primarily working on, and worrying about, improving ourselves, not our neighbors who think differently, or look differently, or, yes, worship differently than we do. Columns are simply the opinions of those who write them, and now, you've read mine. It is not easy for any of us to admit defeat, or being in error, er-ror, but the true tragedy of making mistakes is in not learning from them. It is my feeling that we all have a lot to learn. As the new year approaches this weekend, and we spend our time making mak-ing resolutions and promises to ourselves and others, I hope we'll include on those lists the desire to be less judgemental, because, in the game of life, y there is really only one referee we need to be concerned with, and Hcf ( doesn't dress like any of us. |