This is hardly the way I anticipated getting back to work on this mostly volunteer job. In case you're wondering I was knocked out of commission last week by a sinus semi-infection brought on by air travel. I had flown up to Washington, D.C. to see my real family and my extended soccer family. Included in that soccer family I would hope to be able to include the members of the U.S. National Team that I watched play 13 short days ago. Those days seem like years now. The sting of that defeat in RFK is nothing now. It was little when it happened but most of us did not feel that it was so small then.
This past Tuesday was the darkest day of my lifetime as reports rolled in of passenger planes turned terrorist arms. I like so many, have friends and family that were threatened. Of course we are all trying to deal with this situation the best we can so I will not recount the events that unfolded three short days ago.
In our lives we are faced with many trials and this may be one of the toughest we will ever be forced to face. I refuse to pretend that I am any more ready to take this on than anyone else. I have cried for the victims and for those who are left to attempt to reassemble the pieces of shattered lives. Eventually, though, we will all need to move on and this is my attempt.
Our games have ground to a halt. Major League Baseball was in the midst of a historic home run chase and the mad dash for the pennant. The National Football League was just getting its season started. Major League Soccer and the A-League were gearing up for their playoffs. Sadly, the National Hockey League was preparing for its season as it lost two members of its community. The national sporting scene has indeed slammed to a halt.
Some games will surely resume in the not so distant future. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, but certainly the games will begin again. Should they start sooner rather than later? I can't pretend to know the answer to that but if you ask me will sport be important in the coming weeks I certainly believe it will. There are few things like a tragedy that pulls people together but it seems that the triumph of sport might be the happier end of this spectrum.
Sport will not make us forget what has happened nor should it. If anything, though, it might just make things ever so slightly easier to move on. After all, sport is, was, and always will be a mass distraction. A temporary diversion, if you will, from the lives that we lead. For the moment, though, we must feel every ounce of emotion that has welled up inside of us in recent days.
Maybe, just maybe, we'll figure out how to deal with these emotions that are running rampant right now. Hopefully we will wait until the inhuman filth that committed these acts are found before anymore violence erupts. Most of all I hope no more innocents have to pay the ultimate price. After all, sport can distract us but it can not bring anyone back.
Soccer or futbol is a game that introduces us to the world and often brings that world together. We learn so much about the world around us through this game because we go seeking the beautiful game in other nations. I have learned so much about Iranian culture and Turkish culture and even Mexican culture among many others because of the interest created by this game. These are some of the reasons why a person would nominate this sport for a Nobel Peace Prize.
At this point I must admit that I am as hurt and confused and angry as anyone. I only hope some of my words make some sort of sense in what seems like a senseless world right now. The A-League will resume some day and we will return to a life of paying bills and our average routines but for now we are all facing a time of need. This is what FIFA has to say about allowing play to go on and though it may be hard to find the truth in it now we will see and feel the honesty in this statement soon enough:
"The world today is no longer the one we knew. But futbol must remain a beacon of hope."
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