There was a festival of Mongolian culture
held in a large park close to where I live last week. So my wife and I took our six year old son
along to see it.
There were demonstrations of Mongolian
sumo, archery and dancing. My wife
noticed that children aged between five and seven years old could take part in
the sumo. So I encouraged my son to sign
up for it.
I said, “We often practice Japanese sumo
together. So you will be good at
Mongolian sumo too. You should try it. Everyone will be impressed by how strong you
are!”
My son was not convinced. “But Daddy, I might lose to everyone.”
“Yes,” I said. “You might lose to everyone. But they will still be amazed. Because it is your first time to try
Mongolian sumo, nobody will expect you to be good at it. But they will be impressed if you try hard!”
Then my wife joked, “You could always lie
about your age. We will say that you are
five years old instead of six, and you will be a real underdog!”
I remember doing something similar when I
was a child. I used to draw pictures
when I was still in elementary school. I
would sign my name at the bottom of the picture. I would write “By William Lang, aged six,”
even though I was actually eight.
I liked to imagine people years later
finding the pictures and saying, “My God!
William was this good as an artist when he was just six years old!” I didn’t tell that story to my son. Instead, I told him not to lie about his age.
So we got to the registration desk for the
Mongolian sumo.
“What’s your age?” asked the lady behind
the desk, looking at my son.
There was a long pause as my son wrestled
with a moral dilemma. At last he said,
“Six.”
But now he was in a bad mood, and was
getting nervous about the sumo. I tried
to reassure him by practicing on the grass, and his mood picked up.
Then we saw a group of Mongolian children,
practicing for the sumo event. They were
dressed in traditional costumes. They were
kicking and grabbing at each other’s legs, trying to knock their opponents to
the grass. It seemed a bit more vigorous
than the Japanese style sumo my son and I play, in which we try to push each
other off the cork mat in our living room. These wrestlers were like a little army of
Genghis Khans. My son’s bad mood and
nerves returned. We decided to give our
son a chance to back out.
“Would you like to withdraw from the
Mongolian sumo event?” I asked.
“Umm, maybe I could take part in the
dancing instead?” he said.
I am not sure that Genghis would have been
proud of his fighting spirit. But we did
enjoy watching the sumo, and the dancing, and eating some kebabs.
Vocabulary:
an underdog – in a competition such as a
sporting event, the competitor which looks weaker and is expected to lose. (eg.
The boxing champion will fight a challenger, who has never beaten him
before. The challenger is a real
underdog.)
to wrestle with a moral dilemma – to
struggle very hard in making a moral decision, or a decision about right or
wrong (eg., When I found out that my family member had committed a crime, I had
to wrestle with a moral dilemma: should I tell the police?)
to back out – of a planned action, to
change one’s mind and withdraw from or cancel the planned action (eg., He
promised to join us on the camping trip, but he backed out when he heard about
the cost.)
