I’m not a huge soccer fan, and don’t get me started on FIFA, but I love the World Cup. There have been some fantastic matches (Cape Verde almost upsetting Argentina!). I was too tired yesterday to join some cousins at a bar for the Mexico/England match, but some folks are coming over in a few minutes for the USA/Belgium game. And because I’m behind on posting, and I’m about to watch the World Cup, I was trying to shoehorn some kind of lesson from the tournament into this post, and I realized that live sports is one of the few things that brings people together in person, whether attending the game, or gathering to watch socially.
Religious attendance is down. Adult clubs and organizations are in steep decline. Movie theaters are no longer the gathering places they were when they were the only place to enjoy entertainment on a big screen with air conditioning.
We have so many options (demands) for our attention, from the devices in our living rooms to our pockets– we are always connected, but less connected than ever to what matters.
Sports, especially the multibillion dollar rackets like FIFA, may seem inane when there are much more pressing problems than who wins the next game, but they give us a chance to come together, and take out some of our tribal instincts without a lot of the terrible downsides of those instincts in other domains.
Go team USA.
And, on a smaller scale, what can you do to bring people together, even if it’s just introducing two people who should know each other?