NERDS VERSUS JOCKS (MIND & BODY)

Victor Bloom MD

I captured the following amusing essay off the Internet and therefore cannot ascertain the accuracy of the figures, but let us suspend judgment for a moment and consider this premise--- Michael Jordan, a professional basketball player, is a multi-millionaire.

He will make over $300,000 a game, $10,000 a minute, assuming he averages about thirty minutes a game. Assuming $40,000,000 in endorsements next year, he'll be making $178,100 a day (working or not!)

Assuming he sleeps seven hours a night, he makes $52,000 every night while visions of sugarplums dance in his head. If he goes to see a movie, it'll cost him seven dollars, but he'll make about twenty thousand dollars while he's viewing the show. If he decides to have a five minute egg for breakfast, he'll make $618 while he's boiling it.

He makes $7,415/hr more than the minimum wage (after the wage hike). He'll make $3,710 while watching each episode of "Friends".

If he wanted to save up for a new Acura NSX ($90,000) it would take him a whole twelve hours.

If someone were to hand him his salary and endorsement money, he or she would have to do it at the rate of a two dollar bill every second.

He'll probably pay around $200 for a round of golf, but will be 'reimbursed' $33,390 after he plays.

Assuming he puts the federal maximum of 15% of his income into his tax deferred account (401K), he will hit the federal cap of $9500 for such accounts at 8:30 AM on January 1st, 1997.

If you were given a tenth of a penny for every dollar he made you'd be living comfortably at $65,000 a year.

He'll make about $19.60 while watching the 100 meter dash in the Olympics. He'll make about $15,600 while the Boston Marathon is being run.

While the common person is spending about $20 for a meal in his trendy Chicago restaurant, he'll pull in about $5600.

Next year, he'll make more than twice as much as all of our past presidents for all of their terms combined.

Amazing isn't it? But:

JORDAN WILL HAVE TO SAVE 100% OF HIS INCOME FOR 270 YEARS TO HAVE A NET WORTH EQUIVALENT TO THAT OF BILL GATES.

And so the contest goes on about jocks and nerds, and here the nerd seems to be winning. But think of the nerds Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg. Do they have the edge on Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Who is your role-model, the Nobel Prize Winner or the Olympic athlete? The poet or the wrestler?

The ideal of mental health is embodied in the classic Greek idol of balance, balance between mind and body, the rational and the emotional, the primitive and the civilized.

Freud was convinced that civilization had its discontents, that we are all more or less neurotic, that is to say, conflicted, between the call of the wild and the necessities of society. The best we can do in life is to cultivate emotional growth, learn to be mature adults and develop ourselves to our fullest potential. Ideally, we achieve a balance as productive adults between Love and Work, love being our family, friends and community, and work being productive and creative and contributing to the betterment of humankind, whether in the smaller or larger sense.

Michael Jordan is entertaining as we watch him 'fly' and sink those baskets while being double-teamed. We enjoy identifying with him, surmounting obstacles with the greatest of ease. Bill Gates is invisible in the background and we cannot identify with him, as he continues to rake in the cash while doing what Henry Ford used to do. But Henry Ford built tangible automobiles which we purchase and drive. Bill Gates' product is as invisible as he is, it is software which makes the hardware work. His inventions made the Internet a virtual reality, from which I got the Michael Jordan story.

More and more the nerds are winning, so maybe the meek shall inherit the earth after all, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Dr. Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, WSU School of Medicine, Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He lives and practices in Grosse Pointe Park.