In a Perfect World

When you think about it, reality television reveals that life isn’t perfect, and many find high entertainment value in the imperfect lives and escapades of those who don’t mind letting others — millions of others — in on their travails.

If life was perfect, ice cream would clear arteries.
If life was perfect, there’d be no bad hair days.
If life was perfect, I would have known then what I know now.
If life was perfect, they’d bring Sex & The City back.

But as we all know, life isn’t perfect. Neither are any of the humans who live in it.  But that’s not to say we have license to look the other way when we see that imperfection displayed. No, instead we can move toward perfection by standing up and righting the wrong or the inequity when we see it demonstrated.

Case in point: The other day an announcement came out about an organization-wide soccer tournament. U.S. company teams can enter and ultimately be selected to participate in what is termed the Prague Cup (it’s held in Prague, hence the title), and dozens of member countries send teams to Prague to compete. So far, so good.

Except the rules which were originally scribed in, you guessed it, Prague, excluded women. The thinking was simple; soccer is a male-dominated sport and that’s just the way it’s done in Europe. In trying to adopt the rules for our U.S. norms, the team of volunteers who were working to organize the U.S. contingent, reached a compromise with the international organizers — 60 percent of the team needs to be male.  They thought that was a reasonable compromise and promotion for the tournament was marketed this way.

Now, in a perfect world, no one would have had to feel outrage that the tournament wasn’t gender-neutral. There’s no question about that. But given the imperfect world we live in, making the most of the imperfection by speaking up and standing up for what is equitable — yes, the tournament is now gender-neutral — is, at the end of the day, a move toward perfection. A move toward the day when happenings like this don’t provide fodder for a blog like this.

If life was perfect, what would it look like to you?

Cathy
By blogger Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

Comments

[Anabelle in Freehold]

Hi Cathy,
I appreciated your comments and thoughts. I agree with you. This is not a perfect world at all. Just imagine, how this world would be if it would be how God intended it to be in the first place.

[Patricia in Wilton]

This blog is cause for applause on both sides of the topic. I applaud the members of the U.S. firms for speaking up and making mention that soccer, internationally, is not a men's only game. The US has had some great success with its women's teams so it appropriate to ask to play. I also applaud the organizers who appreciated the cultural oversight and then worked to find a compromise. I don't see that type of self recognition often. Yes, mistakes happen. We all come at a problem with our set of lenses on the world, but a perfect world is our ability to open our minds to our own biases when they are noted. Unfortunately, there are still pockets of imperfection in which silencing the speaker is perferred.

[Anonymous]

As a woman, and a British expat living in the US, I have absolutely no problem with the Prague Cup being for male players only. Football (soccer) is a very tough, physical game. There are reasons that women don't compete with men...in the same way that women don't play American football or Australian rules or rugby. Perfection is realizing that there are differences between the sexes and enjoying those differences. Trying to make everyone the same is unbelievably dull.

[Katy in Silver Spring]

In a perfect world, an auditor working a flexible work arrangement so that she can be home more often with her children wouldn't get treated differently than her full-time colleagues, or made to feel like she is lazy.

[Anonymous]

Cathy, Thanks for picking up on and posting on this topic. I love soccer and have played the sport at very high levels in high school. When I read that we were having the tournament, I was excited to participate but decided not to join after noting that the World tournament was only open to men. Hopefully, we will be careful when we sponsor an event to ensure that it is truly open to all its employees to participate equally.