There might be those who would deride Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest as silly, gross and just plain wrong. Well, I should not say there might be. There are those who deride Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest as silly, gross, and just plain wrong. I know this because I saw these people at the contest, wandering about with signs and literature, protesting the contest's contribution to everything from poverty to disease and obesity to global warming.
The emcee of the event, of course, was having none of this notion that it is anything less than a true celebration of greatness. Or, at least, if he thought it was anything less, he wasn't letting on in an obvious way. He used phrases like "triumph of the human spirit" and "inspiring courage" quite often. At one point he described eventual winner Joey Chestnut thusly: "He has moved beyond the mere mechanics of putting food in his mouth! He is eating in the arena of pure emotion!" I think he said this somewhere around the 30 hot dog point. Which means Joey still had about 36 hot dogs and buns (HDB's) to choke down using pure emotion. I imagine this caused the protesters to want to throw up like Kobayashi did after his 63rd hot dog. Excuse me, "suffer a reversal."
But I gotta admit, I love watching this stuff. I mean, I realize on some level that excessive eating in a world of scarcity does not rank high on a list of Things That Contribute to the Greater Good. There is something wrong with it. But, at the same time, there is something very right with it. It may not be the smartest way to manifest willpower and athleticism and persistence, but it is a manifestation of those things nevertheless. And that is cool to watch. In my own life, how often do I try this hard, push myself this much, transcend the boundaries of what had previously been thought possible? Not often. One typically settles in the mundane, stays within the limits of what is considered safe. But at this hot dog eating contest, two people broke the world record, one of them by more than 10%.
It's not a cure for cancer. But that is not its point. Its point is just to figure out what can be done, what is possible, and then do more than that. Progress, if you will, if not towards anything in particular. If we cannot call it a triumph of the human spirit, maybe we can call it practice in the art of getting better.
Or maybe it's just wrong.
It was a beautiful sight to see, even on the television five-thousand miles and six hours away. It so reminded me of the Sosa/McGuire home run chase in '98. Let's hope it turn out better than that in the end.
Posted by: Eric | 07/09/2007 at 03:41 AM