I saw this touching story on the MPR website a few days ago, and paid special attention to the comments. Usually, when there are stories like this, somebody will come along to say that doing something like this is wrong, because it dilutes the message to kids that life is hard and nobody out there is going to give you any slack and that you have to earn everything you get. And yes, there are some people who insist on teaching kids these lessons as early as possible, even for kids who need a little extra help.
This time around, no such comments popped up on this story; it could be because of blog moderation or the makeup of MPR’s audience. In any case, it was nice to see a story without somebody trying to argue that life in the long run would be better for this kid if he had seen failure instead of success in this football game. This is just one story, however. We’ve seen a lot of arguments from a self-describe majority in this country (a majority I happen to be a member of, more on this in a later post) that is harping a message that life is a struggle and we should be thankful for scraping by and anybody who complains about this just needs to suck it up, because life doesn’t owe you anything.
I wasn’t raised to think this way: I believe we are all in this together, and helping others instead of competing with them is an alternative that isn’t zero-sum. So it’s nice to see these kinds of stories once in a while, and for just a brief moment forget that there are people in this world who see life not as something to be enjoyed, but a struggle to be endured.