Sportuality: Finding Joy in the Games is an examination of sports at all levels from a Western perspective, focusing on how it reflects our cultural belief in separation and dualistic thinking, as well as how sports can grow peace, understanding, and joy. Sportuality crosses disciplines of sports and spirituality to help readers—athletes, coaches, parents, fans—evolve a higher consciousness within sports and competition.
Using a journal and questions for self-reflection—called a “box score” and “time out”—readers can reflect upon and create their own sportual stories. By examining words traditionally used within sports, Sportuality helps readers think critically about competition, community, communication, spirit, humor, enthusiasm, education, religion, holiness, sanctuary, sacrifice, and victory.
Sportuality can also expose our learned beliefs in war and violence so we might be willing to choose the alternatives of joy and peace.
Acknowledgement: This book would not exist without the excellence, the understanding, and the articulation of my good friend, peacemaker, and editor, Robert Weir. From our original meeting at the Department of Peace for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District to joining forces for this project, we have grown, laughed, learned, and marveled at the miracles of Sportuality. Thank you, Robert, for sharing your genius with me. You are within and throughout these pages, which also share an intention of peace.
Inscription: Bob, the words that send us into the world at the end of (Catholic) Mass seem appropriate—“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Thank you for sharing this journey with me. May our joy always be. With love and gratitude, Jeanne
Jeanne Hess and Robert Weir at Hay House “I Can Do It” conference, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2012
Finding Joy in the Games
By Jeanne Hess
Published by Balboa Press
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Balboa Press
Jeanne Hess
Jeanne Hess was born on the cusp of Title IX, grew up in suburban Detroit as a tomboy in the 1960s, and came of age as a varsity athlete at the University of Michigan in the 1970s. The allure of sports and spirituality was nurtured throughout her twenty-eight-year career as a volleyball coach, professor of physical education, and college chaplain at Kalamazoo College, and by virtue of being the wife of a coach and the mother of two professional athletes.
Raised as a dualistic Catholic-Episcopalian, Jeanne has embraced the universal nature of Catholicism, defining all people as God’s children united in spirit. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with her husband, Jim, whom she met in a gym. Their lives have been defined, shaped, and enhanced by several different gyms and athletic arenas.
