Playing in the Zone: Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Sports
It's so easy to be enthralled by the razzle-dazzle outward physicality of our games that we tend to miss their metaphysical inner underpinnings. It's this spiritual dimension--sport's "secret life"--that so attracts Cooper; his exploration results in a penetrating meditation.Using former journeyman catcher Wes Westrum's observation--"Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand"--Cooper aims to initiate the many into that realm of the few. His is an extended riff into the whys and hows of the ways "we become so absorbed in the task at hand that the self is forgotten and experience is displayed in its primal power and pristine clarity." Drawing on both Eastern and Western philosophies and religions, he dives into questions of why we play the games we do, how they reflect our myths, and how through inspiration, belief, and focus athletes such as Ali, Dr. J., and Joe DiMaggio rise to new levels, reaching, quite literally, states of grace. Cooper's treatise may be short, but it is rich and it is winning. It answers questions. Even better, its answers inspire more questions.--Jeff Silverman