Monday, October 13, 2014

The Same and Different

Rugby is a sport and a very old one.  Baseball is now considered a sport, though a bit younger one.  I suspect that when rugby players first heard of or saw baseball, they might have said, "That is not a sport."  Rugby defined "sport" within their own definition, and baseball simply did not quality.  Eventually, even rugby accepted baseball as a sport of sorts, but not something for REAL rugby players.  These two games are the same as "games" and "sports."  It this they are the same, but one is not the other.  I used to have a subscription to a sport magazine.  When it first began to have a weekly story on "Bridge" the card game, I said, "That is not a sport!"  Though Bridge is a game and a competition with a teammate, it did not fit my narrow definition.  I think that at times when we say that one thing is not equal to another, we have to be careful of our motives.  Are we prejudiced against one, as I was about Bridge, or the rugby players about baseball.  On the other hand, when there is a difference between two things, we cannot say they are exactly the same.  Bridge is not Baseball, nor Rugby.  They may be the same as "sports" but different in some other respects.  Try this with your definition of "Marriage."

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