This week many of us watched as our friends over the Atlantic in the United States voted for their 47th President. This election seems to have been one of the most divisive in history, resulting in some being overjoyed by the result, and others devastated. Of course defeat for any person or group is disappointing but it’s part of democracy, and it also reminds us that disappointments are part of life.
If we stop and think about it, in so many areas we don’t and can’t always get our way. We need to learn to lose well. When I was at school I enjoyed playing team sports.
It was great to win, but we sometimes lost. I recall one teacher in particular emphasising how we needed to lose honourably, urging us at the end of a match to shake hands with the opposition, thank them for the game and show great respect. In short, we were to treat them as we’d like them to treat us, if we’d won.
Those were wise words which can be applied to so much of life, not just to frustrations on the sports-field or at school, but at work, in our home, or town. We need to learn to lose graciously, and also live and work well with the victors. This is especially true now in U.
S. politics , as the next election is not planned for another four years. If Americans want to become more united as a nation, then the way both the victorious and the defeated act and react in the coming months is so important.
Here in Bolton , we live with many people who share a breadth of differing views on all sort of .