Sasha Zverev, type 1 diabetic, wins US Open tennis tournament!

Sports & Exercise
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In the days of playing hockey without a helmet and losing your front teeth as an occupational hazard … it is pretty incredible and those pictures are something else.

I am not a hockey fan, but those pix bring back the hockey days of yore. That was a pretty incredible accomplishment.

I suppose since I am the OP on this thread I should respond to @JessicaD although i think it skirts the border of on-topic comments for this board.

Very well put, and I agree with this. Although I think that these sentiments are currently the minority position among folks with opinions about these things.

Jonathan Richman has a great song, from way back in the early 1970s, titled “Pablo Picasso was never called an a@@hole”. The basic idea in the song is that in the time and place in which he lived he could do horrible things, esp to women, which he did. But he was Pablo Picasso. So how do you handle his great art? Or put another way, does his horrible personal life diminish his art?

The guy who is absolutely the worst / best example of this is that a@@hole Paul Gauguin. He goes to the islands of the South Pacific, sleeps around, spreads venereal disease and is generally absolutely exploitive in his relations in the South Pacific. And he produces these incredible paintings. I think we can do both - appreciate his art and skill while acknowledging that he was a jerk. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

But I’m afraid most of the world currently sees things differently. For example, look at Pete Rose in Baseball. Not a very nice guy who also happened to be an incredible baseball player. (RIP - I shouldn’t even be dissing him since he passed away recently).

So that’s my 2 c. In the case of Zverev, I remain impressed with the skill he demonstrated and his acceptance (victory) speech after he won the 2026 US Open is a wonderful speech for parents with T1D kids as I believe he goes out of his way to thank his mom and dad. Of course this does bring up @JessicaD s concern - I recognize that and breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to face those parenting tasks anymore, because it would certainly require some careful framing!

eta: here’s a link to the famous Jonathan Richman song on youtube:

"He could walk down the street and girls could not resist the stare

So Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole. Not like you."

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22

This is all thought provoking and probably beyond the scope of the intent of FUD, but I will add one more thought. I hear you all on separating the artist from his/her behavior. However, T1D is (stereotypically) known as a disease that affects young people. Kids. And we know that this disease affects everyone it touches deeply. So as parents, I believe it’s our obligation to pick and choose the people we highlight as “mirrors” to our children. For me, that would not be AZ. Thanks for responding, Eric (both Erics!), and everyone else – all of these sporting examples are fantastic.

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Thanks Jessica - I can sympathize. I’ve thought a bit about my position on this “Pablo Picasso” issue, and I think mine is fundamentally a selfish perspective - I want to be able to enjoy the artistry of someone even if I find their actions in what we used to call their “private life” objectionable.

While I would not suggest that you seek out the conversation with your kids, I expect it will come up at some point - that there is a person who does something amazing and is also a complete jerk. It seems to me that when the example comes up, you can make the distinction between their ‘art’ and their private lives – that they can be admired for their achievement even tho they are jerks.

There are lots of reasons I’d recommend this approach, but really it’s a selfish one – to be able to enjoy great work w/o feeling guilty about it or turning away from it because of the nature of its maker.

And it does represent a great, if challenging, teachable moment!

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