Prioritizing Bragging

SO, my buddy finishes graduate school in the early eighties, goes about his business, pursues his career, marries, starts a family. I do the same thing, minus the wife and kids. Call me smart. Decades pass. Serrendipitously, I resume limited contact with my old buddy, and we begin to catch up. He begins talking about his kids, two teenaged sons. The marriage apparently goes south, but out of it he got two fine, strapping sons. Without so much as a word of what's up with you, he launches into a comprehensive description of his boy's athletic prowess, and involvement. How far they hit a golf ball, how hard they swing a bat, how far the ball goes, how hard they throw the ball. The usual scouting report material, the whole nine yards. And that's just fine with me, to a point. Lord knows I love sports. High school golf, college tennis, tennis thorughout life, long distance running throughout early and middle aged adulthood, weight lifting; I live and breathe sports and exercise. Now in my mid to late sixties I retreat to the comfort of my own home, which contains my exercycle (Swhwinn Airdyyne, arms and legs), Gold's Gym treadmill, and some free weights. All that came in handy during the pandemic quarantining. Also, hiking on wooded mountain trails. For sixty six, I am quite fit, thanks to a lifetime of hard work and fun. I know and care enough about sports to understand how utterly trivial they are in the grand scheme of things. So, I kept waiting, waiting for my old buddy to tell me something important about himself his children. Their athletic talent I stipulate, ready to move on to more important matters. What, for example, about the boy's personalities, their intellectual lives? They have both, I must assume. Have they discused possible career choices? Do they understand, or rather, have you, as their custodial parent, inculcated within them the importance of taking good care of their minds and bodies at an early age, as that determines much about their mental and physical health and well being throughout life? Tell me about your children, but don't brag about them. Tell me about what's important, and leave the frivolous for later. Are they kind, compassionate, and empathetic? Do they respect others, especially old people? Do they love nature, and animals? Do they understand their personal responsibility inherent in their future stewardship of the earth's ecosystem, and the challenges ahead involved in healing the Earth their immediate ancestors abused so badly? Our behavior, all of us, is partly a reflection of our entrapment within a broader social context, whatever that context may be. It reflects our society's values as well as our own. My old buddy drones on about his son's athletic achievements, and excludes even the mere mention of demonstrably far more important aspects of their personal growth and development, within this societal context. And why wouldn't he? He lives in a society which spends more on eye makeup than eye research, more on entertainment than education, which makes gods of entertainers, and largely ignores teachers. So, let's talk sports.