Soccer as Culture
About 2 years ago I was taking a master's class called Cultures of the Classroom, and as an initial exercise, the professor asked each of us to draw a mandala that represented his or her culture or cultures. Then we discussed our mandalas in small groups. One aspect of my personal culture that I included was soccer. The rest of my group was a lot younger than me, they were all very WASPy, and they were all female, and they all kind of balked at "soccer" being a "culture." I gave them a quick spiel about soccer being one of the cultures shared by the world, how it connects people who otherwise have very little in common, how it has followers as passionate as those of any religion, etc., etc. They were not convinced.
Teaching immigrants these past few years has really solidified my belief that soccer is its own culture. With some of those kids I shared very little---little in the way of language, customs, socioeconomic background---but when it came to soccer, we were on the same page.
Today as I sat at the bar of the British Bulldog (packed like a sardine among so many rabid fans that I am 100% certain we were violating fire codes), as the teams' national anthems were played I literally had a shiver run down my spine. For a split-second I felt this overwhelming metaphysical connection with the billion other people around the globe who were witnessing the exact same thing I was at the exact same second I was. (Cool, got another shiver just now!) Some of this billion even had faces; I thought about people I have known from around the world, and how even if I haven't talked to them in years, I knew what they were probably doing right then, regardless of their local time. Chrysoula & Thouly in Greece, Jussara in Brazil, Sergei in Moscow, Randa in Lebanon, Jelena in Zadar, the fans I met at Fan Fests in Sweden & Germany this summer, Coco's family in Togo, Javier in Mexico, all my old students from Hittfeld, Spartak in Latvia, the One Who Got Away in Paris and the other One Who Got Away in Dresden... None of us knew how the game would turn out, and all of us watched it unfold in real time. So even though I only felt that connection for a split-second, we stayed connected for more than 120 minutes. Pretty amazing.
After the overtime & the PKs, the Bulldog spilled over with joy. Everyone was so happy. They put on the loud, loud Engerland music (Vindaloo, Come on England, etc.) and everyone was clapping and singing along. A drunken patron stood on a barstool and commandeered the microphone to lead us all in three cheers for Isaac and his crew. We paid one last World Cup tab, I hugged Victoria goodbye, and we made our way back to th car in the rain. And now the competition is over. Life can resume its regularly scheduled program. I can put my nose back to the grindstone for a few more days and then I plan to spend the remainder of the summer on Planet Play. And, *sigh*---farewell, world-class teams; hello, again, Rapids.
Last night we had a pathetic turnout for the Rapids game, by the way---especially considering the promotion was One Child Gets In Free With Each Adult Ticket Purchased. We didn't even post 5,000 in ticket sales, and I guaran-fucking-tee you there weren't even 2,000 butts in seats last night. Sad, sad, sad. It was also pretty sad that going into stoppage time at the end of the second half, a 0-0 draw looked almost certain. Then, LO!, Clint Mathis scores his first goal for the Black & Blue. Hooray! Something to celebrate!!
Afterwards a bunch of C-Firm folk stood around in Lot C just jawing away. Good times. At length a group of us went to Delaney's to see if any players would show up to celebrate, and eventually they did. At first just three of us were at the bar, and there were only three players (Terry Cooke, Clint Mathis, and Eric Denton). By the end of the night about 10 of us were in our group and a bunch of other players had shown up: Beckerman, Cannon, Crawford, Jeff Stewart (!), and even Jimmy Conrad---though I am sorry to say I personally did not see Conrad.
I asked Cooke about the All-Star thing, and he was downright indignant. He leads the league in assists, and if he doesn't make the All-Star team he thinks it's a total injustice. Mathis was practically unrecognizable in his civvies, and I didn't actually talk to him. Beckerman was his usual friendly self, and he is very optimistic about how the Rapids have started off this year. I had never spoken to Denton before, and he was fantastic. Funny story about Denton...
I was with capone & prk, I believe, when we started talking to him. Introductions all around, shaking of hands, and the line I'll never forget: "How come we've never met?" Out of context, isn't that just delicious?! In context, he was talking to everybody, not just me. ; ) capone offered to buy a round of shots and asked E.D. what he wanted. He said he didn't know: "Something light? Maybe something a little fruity?" Clearly he was looking for suggestions. That is not my kind of shot, but since nobody else had a suggestion I said, "Well, I've never tried it, but I have heard ads on the radio for Tuaca. Is that fruity?" Tuaca was shot down instantly! Then Denton said to me, "Well, what are you drinking? What is that?" I said, "Uh, it's straight bourbon." Never the twain shall meet. Anyhoo, we wound up getting shots of Jaeger (yay!) and talking about Denton's current house guests. Denton said he'd get the next round of shots but we never saw him again until he was leaving. Ah well, some other time!
Thanks for sharing your jury duty stories. Those are interesting. I think you three are the only people who ever read this! {{hugs!}}
That's about it, folks. Peace out!
Teaching immigrants these past few years has really solidified my belief that soccer is its own culture. With some of those kids I shared very little---little in the way of language, customs, socioeconomic background---but when it came to soccer, we were on the same page.
Today as I sat at the bar of the British Bulldog (packed like a sardine among so many rabid fans that I am 100% certain we were violating fire codes), as the teams' national anthems were played I literally had a shiver run down my spine. For a split-second I felt this overwhelming metaphysical connection with the billion other people around the globe who were witnessing the exact same thing I was at the exact same second I was. (Cool, got another shiver just now!) Some of this billion even had faces; I thought about people I have known from around the world, and how even if I haven't talked to them in years, I knew what they were probably doing right then, regardless of their local time. Chrysoula & Thouly in Greece, Jussara in Brazil, Sergei in Moscow, Randa in Lebanon, Jelena in Zadar, the fans I met at Fan Fests in Sweden & Germany this summer, Coco's family in Togo, Javier in Mexico, all my old students from Hittfeld, Spartak in Latvia, the One Who Got Away in Paris and the other One Who Got Away in Dresden... None of us knew how the game would turn out, and all of us watched it unfold in real time. So even though I only felt that connection for a split-second, we stayed connected for more than 120 minutes. Pretty amazing.
After the overtime & the PKs, the Bulldog spilled over with joy. Everyone was so happy. They put on the loud, loud Engerland music (Vindaloo, Come on England, etc.) and everyone was clapping and singing along. A drunken patron stood on a barstool and commandeered the microphone to lead us all in three cheers for Isaac and his crew. We paid one last World Cup tab, I hugged Victoria goodbye, and we made our way back to th car in the rain. And now the competition is over. Life can resume its regularly scheduled program. I can put my nose back to the grindstone for a few more days and then I plan to spend the remainder of the summer on Planet Play. And, *sigh*---farewell, world-class teams; hello, again, Rapids.
Last night we had a pathetic turnout for the Rapids game, by the way---especially considering the promotion was One Child Gets In Free With Each Adult Ticket Purchased. We didn't even post 5,000 in ticket sales, and I guaran-fucking-tee you there weren't even 2,000 butts in seats last night. Sad, sad, sad. It was also pretty sad that going into stoppage time at the end of the second half, a 0-0 draw looked almost certain. Then, LO!, Clint Mathis scores his first goal for the Black & Blue. Hooray! Something to celebrate!!
Afterwards a bunch of C-Firm folk stood around in Lot C just jawing away. Good times. At length a group of us went to Delaney's to see if any players would show up to celebrate, and eventually they did. At first just three of us were at the bar, and there were only three players (Terry Cooke, Clint Mathis, and Eric Denton). By the end of the night about 10 of us were in our group and a bunch of other players had shown up: Beckerman, Cannon, Crawford, Jeff Stewart (!), and even Jimmy Conrad---though I am sorry to say I personally did not see Conrad.
I asked Cooke about the All-Star thing, and he was downright indignant. He leads the league in assists, and if he doesn't make the All-Star team he thinks it's a total injustice. Mathis was practically unrecognizable in his civvies, and I didn't actually talk to him. Beckerman was his usual friendly self, and he is very optimistic about how the Rapids have started off this year. I had never spoken to Denton before, and he was fantastic. Funny story about Denton...
I was with capone & prk, I believe, when we started talking to him. Introductions all around, shaking of hands, and the line I'll never forget: "How come we've never met?" Out of context, isn't that just delicious?! In context, he was talking to everybody, not just me. ; ) capone offered to buy a round of shots and asked E.D. what he wanted. He said he didn't know: "Something light? Maybe something a little fruity?" Clearly he was looking for suggestions. That is not my kind of shot, but since nobody else had a suggestion I said, "Well, I've never tried it, but I have heard ads on the radio for Tuaca. Is that fruity?" Tuaca was shot down instantly! Then Denton said to me, "Well, what are you drinking? What is that?" I said, "Uh, it's straight bourbon." Never the twain shall meet. Anyhoo, we wound up getting shots of Jaeger (yay!) and talking about Denton's current house guests. Denton said he'd get the next round of shots but we never saw him again until he was leaving. Ah well, some other time!
Thanks for sharing your jury duty stories. Those are interesting. I think you three are the only people who ever read this! {{hugs!}}
That's about it, folks. Peace out!