Murray Bowen, the pioneer of Family Systems Theory, could have predicted the outcome of tonight's UNC-Clemson game. Bear with me if you're not a sports fan.
Clemson University went into the game with their best shot of beating Carolina in years. They'd begun their season 17-0, matching their best start since Horace Grant wore the bright orange in 1986/87. They had the more experienced players. They certainly had a home court advantage with Littlejohn packed to the rafters.
But Carolina was a decidedly better team, silencing the crowd early on and their freshmen taking charge. They won 77-55 with the kind of authority of consistent winners. Say what you will about who's better, I say history played a part tonight.
Here's what I mean. Carolina has played the Clemson Tigers 137 times, counting tonight. They've won 118 times. Murray Bowen calls this multgenerational transmission.* He says that things are passed down from generation to generation. Things like behavioral traits, habits, lifestyles, professions, attitudes, dysfunctions, the list goes on ad naseum.
In other words, the Carolina family has learned to win over Clemson - decidedly and repeatedly. I guess you could say spanking the Tigers is in their blood.
*More information about Murray Bowen and Family Systems theory is easy to find at www.thebowencenter.org. If you're a church-type, I'd recommend the book Generation to Generation by Ed Friedman.
2 comments:
University Baptist in Clear Lake (http://www.ubc.org./) is going to host a one day Bowen workshop on Feb. 5.
Gary,
I'm a little behindhand with this, but you struck a chord. I played on a series of losing high school football teams. (Well, I started two ways. What does that tell you about our talent pool?) Thing is, we lost a few games that we might coulda won, but if it was close and something went wrong - a fumble, an interception run back for a six against us - you could feel it walking in our midst: the ghost of defeats past. We didn't quit; we continued to play hard; but we did not expect to win. To this day, I'm not a very good fan, because I pretty much expect my chosen team to lose a close one. I wanted Indiana (the Colts will forever be Baltimore to an old geezer like me) to win because I wanted to see Manning beat the jinx, and because of sentimental images of Johnny U's crew cut and black, high-top cleats. But I was one surprised SOB when it actually happened. Manning himself, however, seemed never to have expected anything different. And now . . . what does that say about how I did ministry for a couple of decades? - Doug
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