The Play and Competition

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Have you ever wanted to do something, but never gave it a try because you were afraid you might fail? I know what that is like.

I have enjoyed art as long as I can remember. I took one year of art in high school and would have loved to have majored in it in college, but fear prevented me from taking even one course (well, unless you count architectural drafting).

I think my fear began one day when my high school art teacher made an observation–an observation I emphatically disagree with now. She said that some people who do art are artists and others are draftsmen. My immature ears heard a fatalistic, “Some of us have it and some of us don’t.” I decided that day that I was one of the ones who didn’t. Though I continued to create art, I didn’t have the courage to try another art class until I was forty.

It is so easy to feel that we don’t measure up. Competition is one way our feelings of inadequacy surface. What do you believe about competition? Is it good for children? Experts and parents alike sit on both sides of the fence on that one. Our children participated in many forms of competition. I’m still not sure what I think about it. I do know that it is good for some things and bad for others; good for some children and bad for others.

Mary Evelyn has decided that the Homeschool Dramatic Society is not about competition. If your mama or daddy signs you up for a play, you are in! It was about twelve years before she had any tryouts, but HDS tryouts are not about whether you get to be in the play. They are about seeing how veteran HDS members have grown since last year and about observing new children and finding out what their gifts are.

One of the most special things to me about Mary Evelyn’s plays is the way she gives each child from the youngest to the oldest and from the meekest to the bravest at least one opportunity to have a moment in the spotlight.

Competition is with us all our lives. “Mama loves you more than she does me.” “You always did think you were smarter than I am.” “You were always the pretty one.” “Why does she always get to do a solo while I remain always in the chorus?”

Yesterday we had practice number two for play number fifteen. I’m thankful that the cast of ninety-eight from more than fifty families is working together without worrying about who is number one.

They came to Capernaum;
and when He was in the house, He began to question them,
“What were you discussing on the way?”
But they kept silent,
for on the way they had discussed with one another
which of them was the greatest.
Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them,
“If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 9:33-35, NASB

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