Let’s loosen up a bit

Goran Adamovski

We lived for this week, we were convinced that we would win and reach the semifinals. They crushed us in ten minutes. We were disappointed and we fell into a depression. Typical for our mentality. Either we praise, or spit, or fly high, or we are at the bottom. There is no middle ground.

And the reality is that we are good, but we are not the best, it is a success that we are fighting for a medal, but it is bad that we never won, that we should not be exalted when we win, nor fall when we lose. Let’s realize that this is just a sport, and life and everyday worries is what is real. And that’s the essence, tired of transition, poverty and hopelessness, we seek comfort and hope elsewhere, in some other people, in other people’s lives and destinies…
No one gave up our players, on the contrary, we all hope that they will win today against the Czech Republic and against Denmark tomorrow. The only thing is that even if they lose, there will be a new day on Thursday, Friday, and any other day. And even after us, there will be a new tomorrow.

In the essence of human beings is to strive for success, human entities want to succeed in life, because through success the progress of society is measured. In our country, celebration and sporting successes are raised on a higher pedestal, because through victories we get a chance to affirm in the world public. The successes cause additional attention to the media around the world, given that it is a small country, which is not so widely known, yet, for example, it succeeds to do something surprising, to win bigger and stronger than itself. Such was the case with the basketball players when they reached the semifinals of the European Championship in Lithuania. There was no media that did not write about Macedonia. This pleases Macedonians. We are happy because despite the series of failures in various fields, there is hope that one day it will be better. Let’s not fool ourselves, sports are a mirror of society. The international competition at the international level imitates the conduct of war, that is, compensates for the military rivalry in the peace period. That’s why sport as a “soft power” is an extremely important part of contemporary national identity, but also a strategic “weapon” of states in attracting international attention. On the one hand, sports successes directly reflect the national pride, prestige and positioning of countries on the international stage, and on the other, affect the satisfaction, unity and sense of belonging to the state. All this especially comes to light in the major sports events, such as European and world championships or the Olympic Games. For those reasons, the successes and medals are counted with particular attention, statistics are maintained, and again and again the countries are ranked according to sports talent. The functioning of the states is reflected in the investments in sports, money and the organizational system, that is, how much the state seeks for its athletes to “sacrifice” for it at the battlefields and how much they will develop the sense of belonging. Exploring the image of a particular country, the first association that will come to mind to foreigners is likely to be a particularly well-known athlete or club.
However, let’s loosen a little. No team representation has made us as proud as the handball players, they participate in all the championships, sometimes with bigger, and sometimes with less success. Thousands of fans follow them everywhere. The problem is that politicians want to stick to them, get more attention and photograph with them and thus raise tensions. Yes, it’s definitely time to make a step forward, to change the losing mentality that adorns us as a society, but guys, it’s just a sport. Each of us tomorrow will wake up with dilemmas how to pay the bills and how to survive to the next salary. And that only if there is a job and a regular salary. Only the pleasure will be great if we do something. And pleasure is not paid with nothing.