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Apr. 13, 2008
Annie
| This morning we woke up and went to Annie's gym at 8:30 to meet Shawn Johnson. Annie is a full time gymnast and Shawn Johnson is a girl who is supposedly going to make the Olympic team in June to go to Beijing, China in August for the Olympics. She had a line of little girls waiting to get her signature so they can say that they saw her when they are watching her on tv this August. All the parents are standing there taking pictures of this girl with their daughter. My daughter, Annie, was in line with all of her friends waiting for her turn to get Shawn's autograph.
I stood behind the other parents just watching this scene unfold. It was kind of surreal. Shawn is a cute 16 year old girl just sitting there smiling as these little girls look at her like they just couldn't wait to see if they grow up to be just like her. I didn't bring my camera to take pictures and I thought it was kind of funny watching the parents get as excited about her as their daughters were. I was trying to figure out why I wasn't excited. Am I just to cynical because I know in the gymnastic world a lot can happen between now and June when the trials are. I know that she could get hurt and not make it there or fall on events and not even get picked to be on the Olympic team. It looks like right now she is going to be on that team but how sure should we be that that is what is going to happen.
I have nothing against this girl and I do hope she makes it -- my point is that I just don't know how much importance I should put on what seems to be a kind of "idol worship" that we do in our society. If she doesn't make it her autograph is worth nothing and everyone will forget who she is in a matter of months. Or she will end up being the one who was supposed to make it and couldn't do it. I think that is a horrible position to put on a 16 year old girl.
I am always confused about how much importance our family puts into sports. Annie isn't the only athlete in our family. I want it to be balanced and I want them to know that watching athletes on tv is fun but when it comes to worshiping them the line has been crossed.
I think that God makes idol worship very clear to even have it at the top of the Ten Commandments. I took my daughter today because I thought it would be fun to see a girl who has worked so hard at her sport and it seems to have really paid off for her. What I didn't expect to see was parents who were more excited than their daughters to get their pictures taken with this little girl.
God Bless,
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Apr. 17, 2008 - gymnastics