the france-uruguay match at an irish pub, molly's fair city, with GL and a german seismologist working in napoli.
among my small tribe, many sides to be chosen: do i wistfully wrap myself in a french flag or proudly proclaim my love with an obama tshirt or go with the tried-and-true, italian style?
what constitutes loyalty when it comes to questions of nationality or identity? is it the life we have been given through parents and their geography or is it the love we have chosen that decides which side of the stadium we sit? is it their blood or is it our heart? if national borders can be redrawn, created or destroyed through wars and backroom treaties, i believe we should drag our passports and our pens across those man-made scars delineating our countries, recognizing that there is something deeper than those borders, something that they don't want us to find out, something stronger to connect to in each other if only we stopped being distracted by all the pretty colors on all the little banners.
4 comments:
in an MLK jr commemoration speech at the buskirk-chumley theater, reverend Jesse Jackson paints a picture of the greatness that is the sports playing field - Reverend Jackson states that there is a sense of justice on the field, the winner will win with a degree of grace and the looser will loose with his dignity - so, what about the field that allows for all of that fighting and confrontation, yet allows grace for the winner and dignity for the looser - what about the field that allows us to move beyond the barriers and fears of race - it is because 1)the playing field is even, 2)the rules are public, 3)the goals are clear, and 4)the referee is fair; these are the reasons why we can all accept the outcome - on that field we do not study race relations - we were taught to survive apart, we must now learn a difficult lesson to survive together - we must unlearn bad lessons well taught, we must move from walls to bridges
http://www.wfhb.org/news/jesse-jackson-turn-lights-back
how i would have loved to hear him speak! at the buskirk-chumley! so many wonderful memories from there. i miss it so much, sometimes.
i love what he says about the grace and dignity involved for both the winner and looser.
and how great the need is to unlearn our bad lessons, to go against what we think is instinct, but is in fact, just socialization gone horribly wrong.
thank you so much for sharing! i love getting your comments, whoever you are! xo
haha (...) is nick - cheers! oox
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