Feathers Falling From the Rooftops
Posted March 31st, 2008 at 10:30 AM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, SoundOFF, Columns
There is a scene in John Patrick Shanley’s Tony-Award winning play Doubt: A Parable in which Father Flynn is giving a sermon. During the sermon, he describes a woman who is racked with guilt after having gossiped about a man she hardly knew. Father Flynn describes in this parable how the woman goes to confession and asks for forgiveness. Instead of giving her absolution, the priest says:
“Not so fast!… I want you to go home, take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me!” So she went home, took the pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to the roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old priest as instructed. “Did you gut the pillow with the knife?” he says. “Yes, Father.” “And what was the result?” “Feathers,” she said. “Feathers”? he repeated. “Feathers everywhere, Father!” “Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind!” “Well,” she says, “it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.” “And that,” said Father O’Rourke, “is gossip!”
I read a thread today on the message board at Track & Field News that is full of flying feathers.
User lilwayne1814 is the one who got the feathers flying:
Upon arriving at the Texas Southern Relays on 3/22, [Jeremy] Wariner supposedly asked the announcer to mention over the PA that he did not want fans talking to him or asking for autographs. The fans were perplexed. He was, however, received well while running the anchor leg of one of the three USA teams.
This message, of course, made the natives restless and soon the people who were contributing to the thread seemed ready to tar and feather Wariner (one, for instance, concluded that “soon [Wariner] won’t have any fans and the problem will be solved” then another called him a “tit” and made the brilliant observation that “it seems that more than his mentor’s running success has rubbed off”) until user texas_speed wrote:
I was at the meet and for anyone that has ever been at TSU Relays, its definitely much different than other meets. Picture a Bayou Classic type atmosphere inside an older high school football stadium (which is about the equivalent of the TSU facility, no exaggeration). Initially during the meet ANYONE was able to walk around the infield, which was the designated warm up area for the meet. There were literally close to 75-100 people in casual clothes just walking around the infield. It was kind of ridiculous to be honest.
Word has it that the last time Wariner was there, he was literally mobbed. So when he and the other pros began warming up for the relays, not only was the announcement made but the meet officials and security had to take about 15 minutes to clear everyone that wasn’t participating in the meet off the infield. If I remember it correctly, when the announcement was made, they didn’t say it was per his request. They just asked everyone to respect the fact that he was trying to warmup for the race and to allow him to do so.
Honestly, I don’t think it was as big of a deal as it was made out to be. At first glance it sounds kind of lame but if you were there, I think you’d understand. I think all the athletes actually appreciated having a cleared area to warmup as opposed to having to weave in and out of people on the infield.
Track & Field News‘ message board, unlike plenty of other running sites’ boards, is well-moderated, is overwhelmingly populated by rational, intelligent and mature group members and is usually devoid of too many histrionics. Unfortunately, this one seems to have gotten past editor E. Garry Hill’s usually-watchful eye. Either that, or he is unaware of the potential damage threads like this can do to the popularity of our already-fragile sport. He’s a smart man, and he might reply that I’m blowing things all out of proportion. Even if I am, I still think my point is worth stating: if nothing else, threads like the one on T&FN do absolutely nothing to further the discussion except to point out that many discussions aren’t even worth having. Surely there’s nothing to gain in having us give one of our own athletes a black eye in the public-perception war (a public-perception war, I might add, that track & field is losing badly), especially when it’s unwarranted! Not only that, but they point out flaws in today’s society: we are too quick to turn on our heroes.
In the preface to the book version of his playscript, Shanley writes:
We are living in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment, and of verdict. Discussion has given way to debate. Communication has become a contest of wills. Public talking has become obnoxious and insincere. Why? Maybe it’s because deep down under the chatter we have come to a place where we know that we don’t know…anything. But nobody’s willing to say that.
My advice to you, if you’re a reader of threads on message boards: If you begin reading and you see the word “supposedly” in the first sentence (scroll up and re-read the beginning of thread above) then run, Forrest, run! You’re about to see a bunch of feathers fall from the rooftops then scatter all over creation.
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Tags: gossip, Jeremy Wariner, john patrick shanley, message boards, rumors, run forrest run, running message boards, track and field, track and field news
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The Final Sprint