USA splat

Based on my new rating system yesterday, the United States gets a SPLAT for soccer. Mostly because of lack of enthusiasm stateside. I think the players played hard and well for the most part. We got beat badly in game 1. That was embarassing. We did very well against Italy playing a man down most of the second half. We didn’t have what it takes to beat Ghana today- though it really should have been a tie- the penalty kick foul was laughable, ridiculous, and lame. But so what.

Ghana gets a BOING. Mostly because of their countries pride. In honor of soccer, their entire country took a half day off to view it on TV.

I got to thinking, I wonder what it’s like to live in a country with a national passion. We don’t have one in the US that I could think of. I can’t imagine the entire country taking a day off or supporting the president’s decision to shut down the country for any reason other than a tragedy. We simply don’t have a national hobby, love, or even focus minus something threatening the name of freedom. I was in Israel several years ago when Yasser Arafat’s chief aid died of a heart attack and almost instantly, the entire Palestinian quarter shut down and people closed up shot for 3 days of mourning.

I’d like to be in a country when the streets get flooded with people headed home to watch soccer. That’s awesome. I wish I was in Ghana to see it and watch it with a small family in their house in the outskirts somewhere with a dirt floor and a television and cheer with them. That sounds like fun. Instead, I cheered and jeered in my home this am with a bowl of cereal and some java.

I was supposed to do a devotion in our staff today at 9am. But the game went till 9:05am. So I called in and postponed my devotion 15 minutes. Which seemed really lame when Ghana took off a half day. Made me wonder what passion I have in my life that I would take a day off for just because I could that wasn’t surrounding a day of tragedy or need. I took some time off this week to help my injured bride- but that doesn’t seem the same.

I thought maybe I’d do it for soccer, a chance to go to a baseball game with sweet seats, a great concert, some event for my kids… but maybe I need to do more. Maybe I need to be ready to drop my day to play more often. Maybe I’d get less done. Maybe in 10 years in wouldn’t matter. Maybe my play time would. Maybe that would make a day a BOING for sure.