Ordinary People

So how many of you, while discussing world cup with others, joked about how North Korea probably practices with grenades instead of soccer balls? How if the goalie gives up a soft goal he'll find himself on the business end of a SKS firing squad?

I've been rooting for North Korea. I like the fact that this closed nation whose players have never even seen a cell phone can compete in a sport consumed by multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements, training facilities, performance drugs and the efforts to mask them, and the like. They really didn't stand much a chance to beat Brazil but they did score a goal against them...and a convincing goal at that.

Imagine what it must be like to be a North Korean soccer player scoring a goal in a world cup match -- most certainly the highlight of any athlete's life but perhaps even more from someone who's not connected to the lucrative world of professional soccer. Just a regular guy. Of course, I'm not so sure this was the case but then I'm just imagining it here on my monologues.

I like the idea of these national competitions because for a brief time the world most certainly feels less isolated, closer together. We stop to watch a North Korean forward bawl his eyes out during the opening of his first ever match and we realize again that they are ordinary people:

I don't think for a second that wars would ever break out among any of the competing countries during the course of this competition. It would be perhaps even better if Afghanistan and Iraq could have fielded teams capable of competing. Imagine if the U.S. played Iran in a quarter final...imagine.

Once we see others as humans, as people, and less as pajama-clad Mujahideen, ragheads, gooks or wetbacks, hey, maybe we gain.