One needs to know only the most rudimentary principles of a competitive sport to see sports as symbolic of life’s obstacles and its triumphs. We will examine two books that do just that: Sacred Hoops, a basketball memoir by Phil Jackson, and The Legend of Bagger Vance, a novel about golf by Steven Pressfield. These two books not only shed insight into the nature of competitive sports but, more importantly, serve as superb examples of the difference between the Western and Eastern worldviews. What we will see is that taking the best from both is not only possible but worthy of consideration in both the personal and political spheres of activity.
