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Ball is Life (8 Lessons from our Basketball court) - #1 Foundations are everything https://lorenzosbizarreplaylists.wordpress.com/2021/05/08/ball-is-life-8-lessons-from-our-basketball-court-1-foundations-are-everything/">https://lorenzosbizarreplaylists.wordpress.com/2021/05/0...
It’s very noisy outside but I cannot complain. Our seminary’s basketball court is finally taking shape and after almost several months of construction, a recognizable steel structure (with roofing) has emerged from what once was just a flat patch of talahib.
As any avid lover of basketball would feel, having a basketball court for your own community is wonderful.
I marveled at the process of how it was built and story behind it. From there, I got some interesting insights that you might find useful for life.
I marveled at the process of how it was built and story behind it. From there, I got some interesting insights that you might find useful for life.
With that said, here are 8 insights for character building from our basketball court.
#1 Foundations are everything.
#1 Foundations are everything.
For a very long time, there was no “progress” on the court. All we saw were some men clearing the site, digging up holes, dumping ground on and compressing it. The last one was the most “boring” to look at. Trucks of soil would arrive.
Men would shovel them into place and roll them flat. This would repeat for a couple of weeks. For many of us who would see time lapse videos of construction sites, I think this one was never featured. Many would show how concrete is poured and how the panels are installed.
But this one, actually, is one of the, if not the, most important stage of the project. For those living in Batangas and driving along its roads, there is an arterial road in Sta. Teresita from the main highway that is anything but a long stretch of pavement.
The asphalt and concrete there is so bad that only those with sturdy enough suspensions and little regard for their vehicles would pass there unless they live there. Gaping cracks go left and right.
You cannot go for about ten meters without experiencing a bump or depression on the road (a bit of exaggeration but you see the point).
What is worse is that has been the condition of that road for as long as I’ve been in the seminary (that’s 12 years) despite constant road repairs to it.
What is the problem? The foundation was sub-standard. The ground was not compressed enough so that when heavy trucks pass by the ground gets compressed more and so the concrete road collapses.
The steel reinforcements are not that thick enough to support the weight of the vehicles passing by. This is the outcome when the foundations are not constructed properly.
This is when I appreciated those long boring weeks of looking at the site and seeing nothing but ground getting rolled over and over again.
The contractor made sure that the foundations are solidly built so that no matter how many players would stomp on top of it and how much rain would seep in the ground, it won’t soften and collapse.
In life, we always talk about character development, how we want to upgrade from who we were a year or week ago. It doesn’t matter whether is much or little to work in your character; the important bit is lay down your foundations.
And what are the foundations for a good character? Virtues.
There are a lot of virtues to list on and a lot of them are very good to obtain but let us begin by enumerating the basic—the foundational—virtues of being a human. These are what we call the cardinal virtues.
They are “cardinal” because they are the hinge—from the Latin “cardo, cardinis” meaning hinge—from which our humanity hangs. Doors can function as doors because of hinges; without them, doors are just planks covering some man-sized hole.
Humans cannot properly function as humans without these “hinge” virtues and there are four of them: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude. These virtues basically answer these questions:
Prudence: Should I do this thing or not? Is there a right time for this?
Prudence: Should I do this thing or not? Is there a right time for this?
Justice: Is this the right thing to do? Will it bring out the common good for everyone or is it just for my benefit?
Temperance: Is this what I really need or it’s just my want? Should I exercise some self-restraint over my desires?
Temperance: Is this what I really need or it’s just my want? Should I exercise some self-restraint over my desires?
Fortitude: Should I continue to do this thing because it’s the right one even if it is difficult? Are these hardships worth it in the end?
Consider a student. He needs to be PRUDENT with the choices that he will make: to study or to play LOL Wild Rift? To eat or to sleep? To do my project and assignments today or do it tomorrow? Often, prudence is guided by the demands of JUSTICE.
As a student, it is required of him to study, have a healthy lifestyle and to accomplish what is demanded by the educational system.
Of course it is not bad to play mobile games or sleep but one must have great digging up holes TEMPERANCE over them as they can be very addictive and controlling. Then we have the difficulty of studying and memorizing for one’s subjects and one must be constant with them.
FORTITUDE is the mental strength to get by those difficult things because of a higher value, for a student it is the future and being a more learned and responsible citizen.
A virtuous student has the foundations to succeed in life. He/she will make prudent and just decisions in the future in whatever job he/she is in. He/she can exercise great control over desires and have time management for work and play.
He/she can overcome any challenge from the workplace.
On the other hand, a student who lets his/her desires eat their studies, who doesn’t listen to those with greater moral authority such as their parents and teachers, who quits upon hearing that there will be “work” and “effort” will usually not go far in life.
He/she may survive but he/she won’t have the dream life, the best that life can offer. No sane employer would want a lazy, incompetent and impulsive employee.
Virtues, like building a basketball court, are not acquired in one sitting. Take temperance for example. To restrain yourself from eating too much, you really have to control your diet not for one or two days but for over a long period of time, years even.
Only when you have acquired that discipline, that virtue of temperance, does controlling your diet seem second nature to you; there will no longer be any effort to it. But before you can reach that stage, you have to work for it for a long time.
There are a lot more to consider in laying the foundations for one’s character as there are more elements in constructing a basketball court. But I hope that with these four virtues, we can get started in building our own selves up.
You cannot be a good husband, wife, doctor, entrepreneur or any profession if you are not first a good human being. Start with the basics. Acquire these cardinal virtues.
This thread can be read here: https://lorenzosbizarreplaylists.wordpress.com/2021/05/08/ball-is-life-8-lessons-from-our-basketball-court-1-foundations-are-everything/">https://lorenzosbizarreplaylists.wordpress.com/2021/05/0...
