You can try to downplay and backtrack now all you want, but what you really said in the OP was this:
...how can anyone give a crap about watching sports, especially the most popular ones such as basketball, football, etc.?
...Oh woopy doo dah, the 20th dunk this game. Glad to see something different. I guess there is the thrill of your team winning, but...
... I think the fact that there is a correlation between the home team doing poorly and spousal abuse in that area going up pretty much sums up the mindest of the people that care the most.
...The next time somebody asks me if I saw the game, or who my favorite team is, and they display any sort of dismay when I say I don't really care at all, do I have the right to tell them just how stupid their past time is? And how I would rather be doing something intellectually stimulating and/or interactive? (Which would include actually PLAYING sports)
Like i said, "to each their own." I respect anybody's love of watching sports, but I can't help myself from thinking they must be a bit dumb for it.
No, you don't respect it at all. This much is obvious. You think those who enjoy spectator sports are a bit stupid.
Now, regarding symphonies, plays, and the like:
Fair enough. But I guess I can't do anything about the fact that I see these other things you list as being much more intellectually stimulating.
Or, you could be like my husband and me - well rounded people who enjoy both the arts AND sports!
More fun, more fun.
I think you missed something. I'm not offended when people bring up anything. I just think its rude when somebody brings something up, and then thinks its strange that I am not into whatever they are bringing up.
I don't know this for sure, but I would be willing to bet that your negative attitude toward sports manifests itself in your response to them when they talk about sports.
I had somebody word for word tell me, after I said (politely, but thank for assuming I'm just a d!ck) I'm just not really a sport person, "well that's weird."
I have people tell me all the time that my interest in Russian history is weird. May I suggest that you quit taking this so personally? People are trying to include you in conversation, they're excited about the topic of their favorite team, or the Superbowl, whatever, and they get some blase response from you when they excitedly ask, "So - whose gonna win the big game this weekend?" Should they call you weird if you don't like sports? Probably not, but have you considered that your disdain for their pet hobby is probably more apparent than you realize?
Disdain is pretty hard to hide.
Something I would never do about any topic/acitivity/hobby, except in response to somebody that went there first. I am almost always I highly pleasant person.
Well, if you insist.
I know very intelligent people that are into sports, so I am only making a generalization. But its still an accurate one from my experience; the more intelligent people I have known have less interest in sports. And yes, I do think that that is because it is an interest that is much less intellectually stimulating.
Yes, you've made that clear - and it's probably pretty obvious in your real life response to the topic.
And the similarity to religious indoctrination continues. If you had grown up elsewhere, you probably would be a loyal [some other team] fan. I know its a bit irrelevant to the topic, although the mindset that crosses both realms is why I ask, but once again, were you raised to be Christian?
You know it's so funny that you say that about locale - I was a military brat and military wife and I've lived all over the world.
Now, this may come as a surprise to you, but other than the Saints, I haven't been much of a sports fan till the past five years or so. In fact, the main reason I have been a Saints fan for most of my life is because they were so spectacularly BAD for so long, that it became kind of a New Orleans joke - sort of a local silliness, if you may. It was fun to call yourself an Aint, and to wear a bag over your head on game day, or a mask. It sort of tied in with the whole Mardi Gras/party town atmosphere.
Actually, I knew very little about professional sports, especially football, till five or six years ago. In fact, like you, I DISLIKED football, and I REALLY HATED baseball.
I was (and still am) a very artistic person, with what I considered to be much more cerebral, and therefore of course superior, interests than (ugh!) team sports.
Then I met my husband, whose son is an accomplished athlete, and on the varsity football and baseball teams. Consequently, much to my initial dismay, I began attending, as a sort of moral obligation, lots of high school games.
I was shocked at how much I started enjoying the games. As a matter of necessity, just to keep from being bored out of my mind, I started learning the rules. As I got to know the kids on the teams, I found it interesting to watch them mature, and hone their talents, and excel. I began to actually CARE whether they won or lost.
This bled over into professional football when the Saints began to come into their own right after Katrina. See, Katrina emotionally devastated me and my family - in fact, my son was in New Orleans when Katrina hit and I didn't hear from him for over a week. My family's business there was destroyed and my cousins all moved away. As a family we were grieving for the city we loved.
The Saints, under Sean Peyton and Drew Brees, breathed life back into that city - and lots and lots of lovely money. When they won the Superbowl, I got so excited that both my dogs ran and hid under furniture!
That Superbowl win was symbolic of much more than just a big football game.
So you see - there are many reasons why people love sports. Perhaps your dismissal of their intelligence because they love something you don't give a rat's *** about is indicative more of your level of intelligence and perception than theirs.
As for your final question - "Was I raised Christian?" Yes, I was - in a home devoid of any sort of sports. My mother is an accomplished artist (oil painting) and my father is an HR consultant who never played a sport in his life. We didn't even have a television in our home, so I never watched a single game of any sort in my house. Any exposure I had to any sports, including Saints fun, was via my circle of friends.
I never went to a single high school game of any sort, never played a sport, and the only professional game I ever went to was a Harlem Globetrotters game my dad took us kids to when I was ten.
So - I fail to see the correlation between my Christian faith and my love of professional football.
Sorry to dissappoint.
