Article 7: Prefontaine and the Moral Life
“Without Limits” is a movie about the great American distance runner Steve Prefontaine which stars Donald Sutherland as Pre’s track coach, Bill Bowerman. In one memorable scene, Bowerman is talking to Pre about a race strategy that will almost certainly guarantee Pre a victory in his upcoming race. The strategy requires that Prefontaine hang back for the first few laps of the race, let someone else lead, and then beat the competition at the end with his ferocious kick.
Upon hearing the race strategy, Pre explodes at Bowerman. To paraphrase Pre, he refuses to run like a coward, and from Pre’s perspective, that is exactly what Bowerman is asking of him. The only way Pre knows how to run, is to run as hard as he can from the beginning.
I love this scene. And whether you like Prefontaine or not, I love what he represents in this scene. As hard as he competed, it was more than just winning. It was about competing in a certain way. A way not definable with timers and tape. Hard to define…but Pre just knew that there was an honorable way to run a race…..and what he was telling Bowerman is that running with honor was more important than winning.
Things like Honor, Awe, Good Taste can be powerful motivators in our lives…but they are hard to define. You know it when you see it. There is an aesthetic quality about them. The New York Times Columnist David Brooks wrote an April 6 article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07Brooks.html?_r=1) touching on the powerful influence that these aethetic factors play in our moral decision making…and he is absolutely right.
In teaching morality to our children and to each other, we have to teach proper moral reasoning. This includes putting together logically coherent arguments in defense of the good. But that is just the price of admission. Brooks’ point is that for far too many of us, the logically coherent argument is not the primary motivating factor used when actually making the decision. Something like aesthetics is. In other words, there is a sense that this is the beautiful or un-beautiful thing to do….that provides stronger motivation to us at the moment of our decision.
But aesthetics can be taught and learned as well…especially through apprenticeship. The Marine learns about Honor from the Corp and a young Man might learn about Manners from his Grandfather. And someone in Chartes, France may learn about Awe from visiting that mighty Cathedral every week. Honor, Manners, Awe….all hard to define. But when you learn them, almost like art….by living them….they become an incredibly powerful motivating force in your life.
So much has changed in America in the last 50 years. One of the most significant changes, is that people don’t have those natural apprenticeships that they once had. In particular, boys don’t spend the same amount of time with Fathers and Grandfathers, working and learning how to become Men. And what is getting lost is a proper apprenticeship in these aesthetic values(honor,awe,manners etc…) that are the necessary complement to moral reasoning in living the Good Life.
As one small example. The Catholic Church has developed a logically coherent argument about the proper role of sexual expression in our lives. One that a preponderance of Catholics fail to live out in their lives. For example, over 90% of Married Catholics use artifical contraception. And through my wife and I’s speaking to Catholics about this issue, we are convinced that Catholics understand on an intellectual level what the Church is saying…they just don’t buy it.
And we are convinced that the only way more Catholics are going to buy what the Church is teaching about the role of sexual expression in our lives is if more Catholics begin to appreciate the Awe-someness and Beauty of the Sexual Gift.
For God has given Humans an Awesome Gift…one that allows us to come together with another person in love, and together with God, create a new and eternal life…out of nothing…but love. God’s gift to us makes us special and distinct from All Creation and makes us more Like God than any other created being. And this gift and power is Awesome. And each time we use this power, we need to respect the Awesomeness of this power.
If you respect your sexual power as an enormous power, and gift from God….if you begin to have Awe for it and the other things of God….then it because much more difficult to disrespect that Gift….to disrespect God, by ever using this Gift innapropriately….even once.
So as you go about your life, think about the concrete ways that you can learn the Aesthetic values in your own life and in how you can mentor them to young people. Because as important as rational moral reasoning is…..sometimes How you run the race is a lot more important. Just ask Pre!
