"Following competitive sport schools you in life's hardest lessons - how to endure frustration, disappointment, injustice."
Froog
Especially if you're an England fan, of course. But actually, for anyone, everyone. As I observed the other day, even Brazil lose more often than they win.
2 comments:
I've got a lot of catching up to do here at the 'ville...
Luckily for that enterprise, at least, it appears that what most of what I've missed has been World Cuppery. That (and most other athletic) stuff just washes over me -- like the stereotypical duck after a storm has passed. "Water? What water?"
Still, I wonder. So many worldly, intellectual, artistic friends become so caught up in the fever, I keep thinking I must be missing something critical...
Well, even if you fail to respond to the beauty of the game (I have tried to explain its appeal to me here), I would suggest that you might find some interest in, and perhaps even share some of the elation of, the mass collective experience - which I alluded to the other week.
I can see that it might be difficult to develop such a keen appreciation for the game if you missed that vital emotional connection to it in childhood, but I think it is probably the most accessible of all team sports. And the huge following the World Cup enjoys is a fascinating sociological phenomenon.
I'd wager that if you were to watch tomorrow's semi-final in a crowded bar or restaurant with dozens of Spaniards (or your local Hispanics, who, I imagine, are mostly now rooting for Spain - or Uruguay), you would have a high old time - even if you understood almost nothing of what was happening in the game. Exhilaration is infectious.
By the way, if you didn't check out the post immediately below, Jumpers for goalposts...., please do - especially the second and third clips. Well, especially the second (the third is funnier, but the second is powerful enough to make me cry on occasions). Paul Whitehouse is nothing short of a genius.
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