Crucial Distinctions: Community vs. Consumption
Last week, I took my daughter to the basketball games at her middle school. Where we live, sixth graders are not eligible for sports, so until next year, watching and cheering is all she gets to contribute. This has created some interesting dynamics for us as we both watch from afar and plan for the future. To say the girl’s basketball team at her middle school is having a rough season would be a profound understatement. We have attended three games. In two of them, they scored zero points in the first half. In one game, the score was 24-0 at halftime. In the other, it was 19-0 at the end of the first quarter. Not only have they not won a game, they have very little chance of even being competitive in one all season. The school is a large (roughly 1000 students), diverse school in an area with plenty of public and private sports leagues. Objectively speaking, there seems to be no valid reason for their not to be a collection of kids at the school with some background and experience in