Wrestling

Taking me up on the request for guest essays, here's a piece from Jaime (J.), thinking about how we impact, or don't impact, the people around us - "The whole idea of what sort of influence I am on others and what sort of influence I would like to be had been floating around in my mind for a few days."

I have been thinking lately about how little what other people see of us actually reflects what we truly are. (How is that for a vague, cryptic, beginning sentence?) I still had these thoughts on my mind when I went to see the free wrestling show hosted by our local nursing home on Sunday.

I am not really a fan of wrestling. I have watched a couple of live shows, but would never watch on TV. I enjoy the reaction of the audience too much to ever be satisfied with just watching the wrestlers fake it on the TBS Superstation. I need to hear the shouts from the crowd proclaiming, “You SUCK!” and “Tear ‘im a new one!” I especially like it when such polite, seemingly mild-mannered folks lose it and start cursing at the loudest shout they can muster.

It is always so simple to tell the bad guys from the heroes. During Sunday’s match, the villains would always enter and exit the stage to music by “heavy” bands like Metallica. The good guys were always cool, smooth, and less aggressive using songs by Nelly as their theme music.

Of course, the most obvious way to tell the good from the bad is by the act given by the players. The bad guys always harass the audience, thus garnering themselves a volatile reaction; offering me the part of the show I find most entertaining.

These wrestlers travel from town to town, manipulating their act everywhere they go. They are actors to the utmost, and since they throw in a little violence with that, it seems most of us approve. It is a safe form of violence, after all.

Watching this show made me think about the impression we give to others with which we share and offer exchange to in our daily lives. Our lives seem so massive to us, but really we leave only tiny smudges on the other people we interact with.

Such a little slice of what makes me who I truly am is ever out there for others to see and feel. Lofty thoughts and great ideas are difficult to witness if they are not shared. Feelings are hard to measure if they are not shown. I hope that little smudge I leave on the people I come in contact with for that little slice of day they get to see me is a positive smudge.