jumping on the World Cup bandwagon...

and what a fun ride it is! grins

Last night I watched the rerun of the Argentina vs. Serbia/Montenegro game. Holy crap.

6-0.

I was ecstatic for Argentina! I love Latin America! I love that they love soccer! And I love that I love soccer a whole lot more because I spent so much time playing it while in Central America. :)

But SM... I can't imagine how they must have felt losing perhaps a bit of their dignity along with the game. My heart panged in empathizing with a crushed spirit... And I thought of playing soccer in Honduras, and a cultural lesson I learned about winning. Hondurans, at least, play to win, but not to crush. Our mosaic soccer team, made up of college students of all shapes, sizes, and abilities, crushed the Honduran high school team. Honestly it was the few HC soccer boys that ruled the field and scored the goals. And to them, you played for every ounce you were worth, scoring as many goals as you could. The game quickly turned from fun competition and a good time to not-quite-world-cup-seriousness. And subsequently left a very disheartened and confused high school Honduran team. Cultural lesson ensued: you don't play to kill. You play to win, and then you demonstrate compassion for the losing team by not scoring anymore.
The World Cup is different in many ways from the experience I had in Honduras. And the points count in the end. But I couldn't help but feel the same strings of compassion being pulled.

And now I need to go teach my Japanese kids. :) Way for a cultural jump. grins