Nani Go Iri Masu Ka

Hope is one of them four letter words with so many different meanings for so many different people. It is one of them words that can be held against you and twisted into something that you never meant. It can be used for you to provide a light where no light was previously seen. Who was it that said false hope is better than no hope at all? Perhaps it was TV actress Hope Lange.

Within each of us is the kind of hope that things, no matter how set they seem can over time somehow still change. As you grow older and more set in your own ways, often this kind of hope is a self hope that no matter how set in stone things appear to be that you can still change things or that the possibility exists that you yourself still can change.

I have a friend who used to get angry with me because she said I said things I didn't mean. I tried to explain it wasn't so much a matter of saying things just to be saying them but rather that at the moment the words were spoken I did mean them, but at a later moment the words no longer represented where I was at. I'm right up there with our President in being able to take all the sides of an issue. "I seen a shooting star tonight slip away. Tomorrow's going to be another day. Guess it's too late to say the things to you that you needed to hear me say. Seen a shooting star tonight, slip away."

If there was one thing I was known for in college it was my opposition to the game of soccer. It wasn't so much that I disliked the game for I would be the first to admit I didn't understand it. Rather it was I didn't see the point. Baseball is sport. Soccer, heck who wants to watch a bunch of people kicking a spotted ball around midfield only to see it bounce off an opponent's rear for a 1-0 final. My rule of thumb was if you liked soccer you had to be a Communist. That was the only viable explanation. Granted the only complete game I ever saw was in my senior year of high school when the mighty Kellogg Chargers boys' team went to the state finals only to lose 1-0 (of course) in the driving rain. I enjoyed watching foosball more than that experience. My only other exposure to soccer was when I was a wee lad and I used to play with my bathtub toys (little multicolored pencil erasers molded in the shape of W.C. Fields provided by the fine folks of Frito Lay) a modification of a game of soccer played in my soapy bath water with a little superball.

To this day I have a friend from college who follows soccer as religiously as I follow baseball and he chides me as much as I chide him on the significance of the two games. When America fell under the spell of World Cup Soccer (har har) he was most insufferable. Thus it would shock him (and many others I'm sure) to know that for the past few days I have been happily watching highlight tapes of the Macalester women's soccer team from the past four years. And you want to know what? I've really enjoyed them.

When I was at Macalester we weren't exactly known for our athletic prowess. So when I plucked in the first tape of highlights and watched those feisty Fightin' Scots battle their way through a dramatic season (starting six first year players) on their way to a MIAC championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament, it made my lil' heart swell with pride. It has amazed me while hanging around the current MIAC player of the year, that a defender could be bestowed such an honor. No longer. Two words come to mind while watching the tapes of her tackling and marking opponents, "fearless" and "geez" as in geez I would never do that for a million bucks. Ouch.

What I have learned is soccer is a sport that requires excellent teamwork. A talented defender is as important as a quality midfielder as well as an effective striker. That's not even to mention the need for an athletic goalkeeper. Like any good team sport, it is fun to watch talented players play their own roles to a successful goal. Watching a corner kick develop with everyone knowing what they have to do, jockeying for position, it's kind of fun. While the game might still be a tad slow for us MTV attention spanned wienies, there is still hope for us all if even I can admit the errors of past ways...