I found an email note from my South American friend Jon in my inbox when I woke up this morning. It was about this article in the New York Times*. The article is about the resignation and apparent fall from grace of an old guy (79 years at this writing), Sepp Blatter who has, in the words of the Times, “run FIFA like a dictator for the past 17 years.” FIFA being the regulatory body that runs the (soccer) World Cup. It kind of gives me joy that I have to explain that this World Cup is the World Cup of soccer because a good chunk of the people who read this blog might not know that. We Americans do have one or two things right.
I have been thinking about it ever since. I think the condition of my elder father with Alzheimer’s has gotten me to thinking about how I am going to be if and when I get old and start losing my filters. The preeminent thought in my mind is “there but for the grace of God go I.” The author in, what appears to be overt glee, characterizes Blatter as having displayed extreme smugness on winning reelection to his position only four days before his seemingly unrepentant resignation–only doing it for his love of the sport. At the age of 79, I surely hope I do not have such a strong sense of entitlement that my failures create great joy in those around me. It is really uncomfortable if it happens even once, but in my case, I fail a lot. It makes me want to practice good behavior and maybe even more than that, a good attitude.
Update: This article that came out today at Sultan Knish describes huge problems created by this same sense of entitlement, but at the other end of the economic spectrum.
*Standard New York Times caveat: We are normally (wildly) underwhelmed by the veracity and unbiased reporting as practiced by the New York Times, but this article had some merit.
Betty Blonde #337 – 10/30/2009
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