It Just Doesn't Matter!
Photo by Pepi Stojanovski
In the 1979 comedy Meatballs, Bill Murray plays a children’s summer camp lead counselor named Tripper. A key subplot of the movie revolves around a competition—the annual “Olympiad”—between Tripper’s camp, “Camp North Star,” and a neighboring one called “Camp Mohawk.” Mohawk is portrayed as an elite camp for wealthy kids, while North Star is for the average Joe.
Camp North Star has lost this competition for 12 straight years. Unlike North Star’s generally affable campers and staff of “counselors-in-training” under Tripper’s care, Camp Mohawk’s counterparts are portrayed as not only athletically superior but as being elitist bullies. Making matters worse, Mohawk is also willing to cheat to ensure a humiliating North Star defeat.
A pivotal scene in the movie happens when, amid what seems like certain defeat yet again at the hands of Camp Mohawk, Tripper gives a rousing speech to his North Star compatriots. The central line of the speech becomes a rallying cry for all in attendance, and they together chant: “It just doesn’t matter!”
What Tripper has led the camp to realize is that winning or losing the Olympiad will not change the fundamental circumstances that separate the two Camps. As Tripper explains, even if “God in heaven above” came down and declared Camp North Star the undisputed Olympiad winner, in the end, the Mohawks will still have all the money. (The important irony, of course, is that Tripper is clearly portrayed as someone who places higher value on serving the needs of children than on obtaining wealth.)
Paradoxically, the recognition that in the grand scheme of things this competition will not determine anything of real value to the participants is a source of inspiration. And this newfound inspiration serves to unify North Star and propel them to victory. In my view, the story hints that upon embracing Tripper’s message, North Star had already “won” regardless of the result of the Olympiad.
While a silly comedy that most would not take with much seriousness, there’s nevertheless a quite profound message to be found here. When we learn to sit lightly on things that ultimately will not matter much, we are bound to find greater joy and true success in life.
Something along these lines seems to be indicated in Jesus’ teaching that “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:35–36 NIV).
Like Tripper, Jesus suggests that striving at all cost to win “the game of life” by securing things like wealth, comfort, and prestige is a fool’s errand. It is not that these sorts of things are inherently bad or that it is necessarily wrong to attain them. Rather, the idea is that, when it comes to the grand scheme, well, they just don’t matter.
This is precisely what Camp Mohawk didn’t understand. Indeed, even though “they got all the money,” they still needed to win the summer camp Olympiad too—and at all cost, including the forfeiture of their own soul by cheating.
Sitting lightly on what the world may (or may not) offer is also precisely what Camp North Star had to learn. And once they did, they were liberated and became joyful.
It is, moreover, a matter with which many of us still need to come to terms, and that can be a painful process. However, I am convinced that when people learn to honestly say to themselves, “it just doesn’t matter!,” then what really matters most will be theirs.