Cameron Conaway's Blog - Posts Tagged "kobe-bryant"
On Kobe's death and holding complexities
Shook. That’s how I felt when I heard the news. As a basketball fan, I cheered for Kobe (and against him when he played against Scottie Pippen), but, like many, I was inspired more by the mindset that fueled his work ethic, The Mamba Mentality. On efforts ranging from workouts to writing, tapping into this mindset throughout the years allowed me to dig deeper.
Even though I knew the details of what happened in Vail, Colorado.
How he’d at first lied to police about the alleged rape, then opened up about the details. How, according to the police report, he said:
Kobe’s death has exposed a disturbing underbelly in our culture: what seems to be our increasing inability to hold complexities. The term “cancel culture” is now frequently used to describe how a culture boycotts or “cancels” a person’s entire career or reputation based on a single action deemed offensive or unpopular.
But this doesn’t capture the entirety of what’s going on. More than cancel culture, there seems to be a bend toward black & white culture; it’s characterized by an inability or unwillingness to hold disparate or opposing ideas simultaneously. It’s a culture that sets fire to the gray and comfortably sets up shop at one of the poles.
As it relates to Kobe, sympathy and heartbreak poured in from around the world. Thousands shared stories about Kobe’s positive impact on their life. Many others expressed anger, believing the rape case was swept under the rug as our patriarchal society gave yet another male celebrity a pass on an issue involving violence against women.
Arguments broke out, and people called each other names and then blocked each other. I couldn’t help but feel I had a bird’s eye view into a #B&Wculture incapable of being inspired and disgusted with parts of Kobe’s life—while maybe even sitting elsewhere on the continuum with some other parts of it.
I’m disturbed by the details of the rape case for a variety of reasons, including how the majority quickly rushed to Kobe’s defense and painted the alleged victim as the perpetrator (an act so common many of us fail to see how toxic it is). But I also like how Kobe could drop in a Lord of the Rings reference during an interview, and I saw him as a creative storyteller with the potential to have an award-winning second act in life.
I at once wonder about the irreparable harm he may have caused women and what other stories may still come to light, while seeing the potential in Granity Studios, his content company, which seems poised to publish books and other content that inspire groups of kids that are typically underrepresented and not often cast as heroes.
It felt… scary to write those two paragraphs above. Scary because embracing the complexity of a human’s life means going outside the tidy box with which many of us want to put most lives other than our own—and that enrages a lot of people.
In 1855, Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, a work containing this now-famous line:
The multitudes. That’s what drew me to poetry, both to the writing and studying of it. Poetry, to me, is far more about the practice of simultaneously holding disparate, diverse, and even contradictory thoughts as it is about the rhyme schemes many of us learned in high school.
Today, as I reflect on Kobe’s death and what his life meant and still means to me, I’m reminded why I believe poetry remains a vital genre. In quick-fix cultures where people not only reduce complex lives to soundbites but quite literally will go to war over those soundbites, poetry offers a gift for those willing to unwrap it: a beautiful opportunity to discover the multitudes contained within ourselves and others.
***
Additional reading:
-For perhaps the best read you’ll find about Kobe, check out ESPN’s Mamba Out
-Jill Filipovic’s thoughtful piece: Kobe Bryant and Complicated Legacies: On the inconvenient women who make matters worse
-For more details around the rape case, check out this piece at The Daily Beast.
Even though I knew the details of what happened in Vail, Colorado.
How he’d at first lied to police about the alleged rape, then opened up about the details. How, according to the police report, he said:
“I should have done what Shaq does. Shaq gives them money or buys them cars, he has already spent one million dollars.”
Kobe’s death has exposed a disturbing underbelly in our culture: what seems to be our increasing inability to hold complexities. The term “cancel culture” is now frequently used to describe how a culture boycotts or “cancels” a person’s entire career or reputation based on a single action deemed offensive or unpopular.
But this doesn’t capture the entirety of what’s going on. More than cancel culture, there seems to be a bend toward black & white culture; it’s characterized by an inability or unwillingness to hold disparate or opposing ideas simultaneously. It’s a culture that sets fire to the gray and comfortably sets up shop at one of the poles.
As it relates to Kobe, sympathy and heartbreak poured in from around the world. Thousands shared stories about Kobe’s positive impact on their life. Many others expressed anger, believing the rape case was swept under the rug as our patriarchal society gave yet another male celebrity a pass on an issue involving violence against women.
Arguments broke out, and people called each other names and then blocked each other. I couldn’t help but feel I had a bird’s eye view into a #B&Wculture incapable of being inspired and disgusted with parts of Kobe’s life—while maybe even sitting elsewhere on the continuum with some other parts of it.
I’m disturbed by the details of the rape case for a variety of reasons, including how the majority quickly rushed to Kobe’s defense and painted the alleged victim as the perpetrator (an act so common many of us fail to see how toxic it is). But I also like how Kobe could drop in a Lord of the Rings reference during an interview, and I saw him as a creative storyteller with the potential to have an award-winning second act in life.
I at once wonder about the irreparable harm he may have caused women and what other stories may still come to light, while seeing the potential in Granity Studios, his content company, which seems poised to publish books and other content that inspire groups of kids that are typically underrepresented and not often cast as heroes.
It felt… scary to write those two paragraphs above. Scary because embracing the complexity of a human’s life means going outside the tidy box with which many of us want to put most lives other than our own—and that enrages a lot of people.
In 1855, Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, a work containing this now-famous line:
“Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself; / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
The multitudes. That’s what drew me to poetry, both to the writing and studying of it. Poetry, to me, is far more about the practice of simultaneously holding disparate, diverse, and even contradictory thoughts as it is about the rhyme schemes many of us learned in high school.
Today, as I reflect on Kobe’s death and what his life meant and still means to me, I’m reminded why I believe poetry remains a vital genre. In quick-fix cultures where people not only reduce complex lives to soundbites but quite literally will go to war over those soundbites, poetry offers a gift for those willing to unwrap it: a beautiful opportunity to discover the multitudes contained within ourselves and others.
***
Additional reading:
-For perhaps the best read you’ll find about Kobe, check out ESPN’s Mamba Out
-Jill Filipovic’s thoughtful piece: Kobe Bryant and Complicated Legacies: On the inconvenient women who make matters worse
-For more details around the rape case, check out this piece at The Daily Beast.
