Quick: Watching Sports or Playing Sports?

Are you happier being a spectator, or happier being a participant?            

Here, sports could be a metaphor for the rest of life, but I don't mean to be asking the grandiose question (or not this time, anyway).

Some people find watching "the game" to be all the sports they need.  Others find watching "the game" to be a couch-potato experience.  Conversely, some find team sports to provide exercise and camaraderie and healthy competition, while others see team sports as painful and artificial.

I haven't played "team sports" since ninth grade, when field hockey and lacrosse were still part of school.  But since I began as a team player in fifth grade, I kinda think, "once a team player, always a team player."  Then, I didn't enjoy watching more than playing.  In fact, I moved myself from playing full-back to playing half-back (or right inner -- I know, I know, the positions have been renamed since I did this!) because there was far less action for the full-back, while the half (and inner) were running running running for the whole game.

Still, when the participants are world-class athletes, there's something to be said for watching.  The Olympics demonstrate this best.  World-class athletes in sports that you only hear of during the Olympics.  Like the luge (what a funny-looking sport).  Like the biathlon.  Badminton (an olympic sport?  doesn't that go with backyards and barbecues?  -- but not the way these guys play!).  Fencing.  And, yes, in typical fashion, the required favorites of figure skating and gymnastics.

The Olympics are not the only place to see world-class athleticism, however.  The NBA playoffs; the World Series; the Super Bowl; Wimbledon; the World Cup; and so on.  When what you're watching is great, then watching can really be great.

On the local level, participating makes more sense to me.  Even when a workout is excruciating (and sometimes they are), the rewards far exceed the benefit of watching the best of the best.  They inspire; but on our own, we are invigorated, get/stay fit; enjoy endorphins, decrease cholesterol, and prove to ourselves that we can accomplish what we set out to do.  Besides, it's also (often) fun.