Nansy-Pansy

Legally Rambling (10/9/09) I awoke this morning to the pleasant sound of my iphone, a quick morning coffee and off to scan the morning news. The AP report noting that President Barack Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I thought WTF! Would someone please resurrect Vince Lombardi! This world needs some serious butt kicking! Lombardi of course was of the mind that “leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” What hard effort has actually taken place here? Another example of "nansy-pansy" behavior!

Now, it has been noted that the Nobel Prize was created by the final will of Alfred Nobel. The relevant portions of that will follow:

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way:

The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my expressed wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.

—Alfred Nobel, Alfred Nobel's Will

OK, so read it again! Am I missing something here! Look, I know that it is not Obama’s fault, and the controversy surrounding this award is amazing. I mean although nominated five times, Mahatma Gandhi didn’t even win this award! What was the Committee thinking? This is just another example of the "everyone gets a trophy mentality" that has developed in this global society. Where is the effort for the reward! Just look at the intent of the maker of this will, surely Alfred Nobel didn't intent for this to be a political award. He wanted it to act as an incentive to achieve a desired result - hard work to confer the greatest benefit to mankind.

Now, Harry S. Truman noted that “the reward of suffering is experience.” So as a “world” are we now discounting the merit of suffering and hard work? It appears so. And what will ultimately happen to our life experience?

This situation appears to be a local to global problem. Yes, the celebration of mediocrity. Case in point, a few weeks ago, while my son’s soccer team was killing the other team, the coach looked back toward the parents and informed us that he was going to have to shut the team scoring down. You see he had been informed by the league that if we out scored an opponent by more than five points that we could be sanctioned! What! Stop hard work! Let the kids play. Sure someone has to win and lose! In fact, losing on this small level teaches the kids to rise again and again. As Lombardi also said “the greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." And, in real life, the kids will soon learn despite the Nobel Committee's example today that if they want success and awards in life they will have to work for them - no one is going to just give success to them.

As Dicky Fox states in the movie Jerry Maguire, "hey ... I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success." And, Dicky Fox was no - nansy-pansy ... Ramble On!