SOCCER PRACTICE...LESSONS LEARNED...

This is just a quick note...gotta go eat dinner...I'll have more on this at another time.

My 11-year-old decided to sign up for the soccer team at his school. I was glad. Y'all may not know that he is mildly autistic, and had never really showed much interest in sports. But he is big (almost my size now), has good endurance, and his mental make-up has left him pretty well ambidextrous. So I thought that soccer might be good for him.

Well, I went to soccer practice at his school this afternoon. He did real good. He can kick the ball with either foot right where it's supposed to go. He can run with the other kids (I'm sure he's worn out now...that's good, too). The only problem I saw is that twice he ended up playing with the other team. The coach is really patient and kind...he got Paul back where he was supposed to be. This is gonna be interesting.

While I was watching his soccer practice a million things were running through my mind. But the thing that I wanted to put across to y'all right now is this: Soccer is the most popular game in Europe, South America, Africa, and much of Asia...but in the US you can't round up a crowd to look at it for nothing.

I started wondering to myself how they get 200,000 Brits, or Mexicans, or Chinese to show up to a soccer game. I remember way back when Trinidad lost in the World Cup. The fans showed up and burned the airport down ahead of the return of their team. Riots, massacres...real blood-baths take place at these one-ups between nations...over soccer?

I finally figured out that the rest of the world just don't expect much from life. If you can sit and watch this mess for hours, and break the bleachers when your team finally scores a point...your life is without much expectation.

We Americans want more (and expect more) than one dribble-in goal in a competition. We want a 42-39 Super Bowl. We want a 12-11 win by the Yankees in the 13th inning. We want to see records broken.

Americans just expect more from life than running up and down the field...and being happy with 1 point.

Just a rambling thought...