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Donald Trumps polarizing political rise in the past decade has driven many groupsand some familiesapart. But a long-running pickup basketball game that I play in, made up of people with various political leanings, including Trump supporters, remains intact. I explored the groups dynamics in my 2020 memoir. In March 2025, we will celebrate its 50th anniversary. As a former psychology professor who has written about the impact of participation in team sports, I think one of the secrets to our longevity is simple: We dont talk politics. Evolution of the game Our semiweekly pickup game has seen several transformations. It started in 1975 as a faculty-student game at Guilford College, a small Quaker school in Greensboro, North Carolina. And we played in an old gym, known as the Crackerbox, once the home court of former NBA players Bob Kauffman, M.L. Carr, and World B. Free. Over the next 35 years, the game moved to a newer gym, went from half court to full court, and back to half court. Students and faculty moved on, while others joined the game, including many people from the Greensboro community. As we aged, our game came to be known as the geezer game. These days, the average age of players is 64, with an age range from 32 to 79. Since 1975, besides an 18-month stretch when we didnt meet due to COVID-19 restrictions, the game took place three times a week before COVID-19 and has taken place twice a week since pandemic restrictions were lifted. Everyone plays I believe weve lasted this long for several reasons. From 1975 until about 2013, the game was co-ed, though usually with only one woman, a former colleague in the psychology department. With a PhD from Yale, she was 6-feet-tall, athletic, and competitive. More importantly, she brought a civilizing influence onto the court. It discouraged the guys from letting their macho tendencies take over. Because of her presence, and the occasional presence of other women, I think we were all less likely to behave abominably. This phenomenon is well documented. As the scholar Gerard J. DeGroot has shown, womens social skills have a calming effect on groups of men. He told the New York Times the following regarding men in the military: When female soldiers are present, the situation is closer to real life, and as a result men tend to behave. Any conflict where you have an all-male army, its like a holiday from reality. If you inject women into that situation, they do have a civilizing effect. Another secret to our longevity is bound to be the fact that everyone plays. Many other pickup games keep winning groups of teams on the court and losers sit on the sidelines. But when we have extra people, we rotate them in every 10 points. If we have 14 players, we break into two games, one 4-on-4 and one 3-on-3. Because we dont have to win to keep playing, this reduces the likelihood and intensity of disputes. The author Thomas Beller has touched on this in his book Lost in the Game: A Book About Basketball. In it he writes: The thing about these street games is that if you win, you play again. If you lose, you watch. Considering the time and effort involved in getting to the playground in the first place, there was a lot at stake in winning. Heres another way we reduce conflict: Whenever we do have a disputewas that a foul or a charge?we call a jump ball and rotate possession. No need for long arguments that are never resolved. We have not completely eliminated conflictsweve had some skirmishesbut they are very rare. We have had our share of injuries, but very few have been caused by overly aggressive play. A few months before we took our 18-month hiatus due to COVID-19, I wrote the book Geezerball: North Carolina Basketball at its Eldest based on what sociologists call a participant observation study of the game. Some people, especially my female colleague, served as important role models, I wrote in the book. And some rules that we implemented, like those that determined when new players entered the game and how we dealt with disputes, turned out to be important. Politics The game has survived the past decade because we dont talk politics. Whereas in other settings, and perhaps especially on college campuses, it might reduce divisions to share conflicting political viewpoints with others, we are there to play ball, not educate one another. In the fall of 2016, there was some talk about the presidential campaign. One geezer, a die-hard Republican, admitted he didnt like Trump. But, as he put it, I could live with him. Another Republican player proudly proclaimed that he planned to spend Election Day driving Trump supporters to the polls. Of course, Trump won, but many players, probably most, did not reveal their political views. Because of COVID-19, we did not play during the 2020 election. This past fall, unlike in 2016, there was virtually no talk about the election. But as someone who sees Trump as an authoritarian threat to democracy, to be honest, I dont want to know if the guys I play with voted for him. Avoiding politics, and specifically Trump, has allowed the game to continue without the animosity it might engender. But the political climate has had its effects on the group off the court. Before 2016, we had periodic geezer gatherings, sometimes with our spouses. We ate pizza, drank beer, gave out joke awards, and celebrated birthdays. We enjoyed each others company. Though some smaller groups have continued to meet for lunch or to drink beer since, we are now less likely to gather socially. It appears, then, that the larger communal spirit has been diminished by the polarized political world we now live in. But the game goes on. Richie Zweigenhaft is a professor of psychology, emeritus at Guilford College. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Alison Fragale is an organizational psychologist and a business school professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Boston Globe, and Inc. Whats the big idea? Your status among your peers and in your community may seem like an uncontrollable factor, by nature of it existing in the heads of others. However, there are actually many fun and easy steps you can take to supercharge your status in humble, authentic, generous ways. Below, Alison shares five key insights from her new book, Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve. Listen to the audio versionread by Alison herselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Being a likeable badass is your path to status. A likeable badass is someone who shows up as both caring and capable. When people see you as caring and capable, they grant you status. That is, they respect you and hold you in high regard. Status is a fundamental human need. We all seek status, and it is critical to our quality of life. Feeling respected improves physical and mental health. It also makes it easier to gain power, another fundamental need. The more we feel valued by others, the better our lives are. Our status only exists in other peoples minds. We only get as much status as others grant us. Fortunately, we can influence our status by how we show up. Science shows that people respect those who care about others and are good at what they do. Showing up as a likeable badass is the most controllable way we can affect our status. 2. Use your skills to help others. A young woman who was active on Instagram lamented that her older (mostly male) work colleagues saw social media as frivolous kids stuff. She didnt want to abandon something she enjoyed, but she also wanted to build her status at work. I asked her, Have you ever tried to use your social media skills to benefit them? She looked at me, confused. What do you mean? I suggested she could offer to post on the company social media accounts or give suggestions for how colleagues could improve their personal social accounts. I explained that I was active on social media, but not having grown up with it, I know theres a lot I could do better. Id be overjoyed if someone offered to help me edit my profile or give me suggestions for content. By doing what you love in service to others, you will be authentic and strategic. Using your unique skills to help others is the most effective way to gain status. You will appear helpful and knowledgeable. By doing what you love in service to others, you will be authentic and strategic. 3. To build status efficiently, find your small deposits. To build your status with many people, you need to find ways to add value to other lives in ways that dont require much effort. Fortunately, there are many small deposits you can make that take minutes or even seconds. Imagine meeting a new acquaintance for coffee, and you offer to pay. Thats a kind gesture, but it doesnt distinguish you as a capable person. What if instead of (or in addition to) buying the persons coffee, you offered to introduce them to someone in your network? An email introduction is free and takes only minutes to write, but its a great way to show up as capable and caring. You signal that you have something valuable to offeryour networkand youre willing to share this value with others. Beyond the introduction, there are lots of small deposits you can make once you start looking for them. Suggest a resource, like a book or website, or offer advice on a problem theyre facing. Bonus points if you type your advice out so you can share it with anyone at the click of a mouse. For example, Ive written out my process for finding and hiring childcare because many parents value this advice. I can now offer guidance to anyone who asks in less than 30 seconds by sharing the documents Ive already created. Find a small deposit that feels authentic for you and that you can do quickly, so that you can add value to lots of people in little time. 4. Have a good answer to everyday questions. Like it or not, self-promotion is necessary for building status. People are more likely to know about your talents and contributions if you tell them. But talking yourself up doesnt have to be icky or immodest. There are lots of artful ways to tell your story. When people ask you, Whats new? or How are you? thats an opportunity to tell your story. We often waste these opportunities by saying something uninspiring and uninformative, like Im fine or Busy. But with not many more words, you could say something that inspires curiosity in your listener and opens the door to tell your story. This conversation only happened because he answered my throwaway question well. I recently ran into a friend at an event and said, Hows it going? simply out of habit and politeness. He smiled big and said, I. Had. The. Best. Day. Today. That made me curious, so I asked him why, and he shared a short story about how he had just secured a new client and that he and the client were very aligned on their commitment to serving others. It was only two to three minutes, but I learned a lot about my friends success that I otherwise would never have known. This conversation only happened because he answered my throwaway question well. And because he was responding to my direct question, his response came across as polite rather than self-promoting. Look for short, truthful responses to these everyday questions that enable you to tell your story in a natural way. 5. Have other people build your status for you. People dont just learn about you from you. They also learn about you from othersparticularly what others say about you when youre not around. Self-promotion is necessary for managing status, and so is other-promotion: having other people talk about you in ways that convey how capable and caring you are. The more other-promoters you have, the faster you can build status with a broad audience. There are three things you can do to grow your set of other promoters: Meet more people. If a person doesnt know you exist, they cant talk you up. One of my greatest other-promoters is my friend and fellow speaker, Rachel Sheerin. I met Rachel in an airport bar. Your next other-promoter could be anywhere. Be curious about others and ask them questions. They will likely do the same in return. A five to ten minute conversation can teach a lot about each other. Convey that you are capable and caring, both in how you talk about yourself and the small deposits you make. Before someone sings your praises, you first need to establish your status in their eyes. Give the person a reason to pick up the microphone. They cant just think yourea likeable badass; you want them to share this opinion with the world. They are more likely to do that if you talk them up first. Most behaviors in relationships are reciprocated. If you sing someone elses praise, they are more likely to sing yours. Another way is to ask them. This feels a little scarier, but people who respect you want to help and will appreciate the clarity. I will often say something like, I know Bob really respects you, and I want him to respect me, too, but he doesnt get to see all of the great work Im doing, and I dont have a natural way to tell him. The next time you see Bob, will you make a point of artfully telling him about my work? Ive never had a single person say no to this request. If you want to increase your number of other promoters, I recommend my 10-10-10 challenge. This week, meet 10 people, make 10 small deposits, and talk up 10 people or ask 10 people to talk you up. Theres no reason building status cant be easy and fun. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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Luce, the anime-inspired official mascot for the Catholic Churchs 2025 Jubilee, whose name means light in Italian, has been getting a lot of attention on social media. Some people love the cartoon and find her cute, but a few others consider her unsuitable and even repugnant. The Vatican introduced Luce at a comics convention in Italy, with the goal of engaging young people and speaking about the theme of hope. Designed by Simone Legno, the mascot with big blue eyes and blue hair, and rosary beads around her neck, represents a Catholic pilgrim. She is dressed in pilgrimage garments that were standard attire throughout the centuries. Her badge, the Pilgrimage of Hope, identifies the 2025 Jubilee. It shows blue, green, yellow and red figures embracing a cross that ends in an anchor at the base, a symbol of hope. The figures form an outline of a ship sailing over the waves, evoking images of travel. I have long been interested in the central role played by pilgrimage in many faith traditions, culminating in an exhibition and book, Pilgrimage and Faith: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam in 2010. Luce brings a contemporary perspective to the time-honored Christian pilgrimage tradition. Pilgrimage symbols The symbols that Luce carries serve as a reminder of the origins of Christian pilgrimage, which began with visits to the Holy Land, the place where Christ lived his life. This pilgrimage was documented by a person who came to be known as the Anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux. He wrote in his diary The Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333 about his trip to the Holy Land when the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where Jesus was buried and is believed to have resurrected, was still under construction. Luce carries symbols that have been associated with pilgrimage in Europe since the 12th century, particularly those connected to the shrine of St. James in northwestern Spain. This Holy Land pilgrimage built a tradition of Christians not just visiting the holy sites but also returning with tangible souvenirs, such as a stone from the Holy Land, water from a well, or even a piece of cloth or a statue that touched Christs tomb. A sixth-century painted box now in the Vatican contains bits of soil and stones as souvenirs of places in the Holy Land. The pilgrimage to honor St. James, one of Christs apostles, whose tomb was believed to have been found in northwestern Spain, became popular in the early 12th century. The pilgrimage route was called the Way of St. James, Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage guided the faithful through several routes across Spain, France and Portugal, culminating in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in the north of Spain. The itinerary of the journey, written in 1137 by an anonymous Frenchman, names natural landmarks, local customs and specific churches built to honor different saints. Along this route flowed artistic, economic and cultural exchanges. As was customary, pilgrims who returned after visiting St. James tomb adopted an emblem. Since the shrine was close to the sea, James symbol became a scallop shell that pilgrims wore to demonstrate their achievement. Pilgrims were proud of these voyages that entailed much physical hardship as well as devotion. In the church of Santa Prassede, Rome, Giovanni de Montpoli, who describes his trade as preparing medicines, commissioned a 13th-century tomb slab showing himself as a pilgrim. He is dressed in a pilgrims fur overcoat to repel rain and retain warmth. He carries a staff and wears a wallet slung over his shoulder. A scallop shell adorning his broad-brimmed hat indicates that he had traveled to Compostela. The popularity of the pilgrimage to St. James persisted through the Renaissance, supported by pilgrimage fraternities that helped people find companions for the journey and stay connected with each other after they returned. Sometimes subgroups of the fraternity even sponsored pilgrimage-related art such as a stained-glass window. Evidence of such activities is seen in the monastery of Wettingen, near Zurich in Switzerland. St. James is depicted as a pilgrim in a stained-glass window dated 1522, donated by a Hans Hünegger and Regina von Sur. He wears a cloak and a hat decorated with pilgrim badges. Pilgrim badges By the middle decades of the 12th century, metal pilgrim badges were produced at low costs. They were soon available at shrines throughout Europe. Each pilgrimage location had its own distinctive badge. Santiagos scallop shell remained a universal pilgrim emblem over the centuries. A 19th-century stained-glass window in the church of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris shows 13th-century French King Louis IXthe only French monarch to be named a saintwith scallop shells on his cloak, even though his pilgrimage was to Jerusalem, not the shrine of Santiago. Sometimes the Supper at Emmaus, when Christ met two disciples after his resurrection, was depicted showing the disciples as contemporary pilgrims. One of the most memorable examples is Caravaggios painting from 1601, in the National Gallery in London, showing an astonished apostle wearing a scallop shell on his vest. Luce, the pilgrim Luce continues, as well as transforms, these traditions. In her large eyes gleam two scallop shells that reflect this thousand-year-old symbol. Like Giovanni de Montpoli in Rome, she wears a coat that shields her from the elements and she carries a staff. The yellow of the cloak references the color of the flag of Vatican City. Like the 16th-century Swiss image of St. James, she wears a pilgrimage badge, this one proclaiming the Pilgrimage of Hope of the 2025 Jubilee. Her muddy boots indicate outdoor hiking, with which any young person can identify. She is depicted as female, representing all people, not just women. Drawn in a contemporary and globally popular style, she suggests an openness to new encounters across the world. Virginia Raguin is a distinguished professor of humanities emerita at the College of the Holy Cross. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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