Old School

My conception of an 'oldie but a goodie' includes Palestrina and Thomas Tallis.

So I'm at my sister's house after spending time at my dad's house for the 4th of July, eating cheeseburgers and hotdogs and trying to stop Shadow, my dad's dog, from licking Haz, my nephew. I've been meaning to write about the World Cup and tie in a thought I've had for a long time.

I enjoy life and all the wonderful things that are available to us. Facebook is a great tool for keeping in touch with all the friends we make that don't happen to live within driving distance. YouTube contains a lifetime of entertainment. I'm listening to music on YouTube right now. (Borodin string quartet no. 2) But life seems so commercialized these days. There is a lot of 'going through the motions' and there are so many distractions that it's hard to stop and figure out what life is about anymore. We have lost something and I have a hard time putting my finger on it.

Anyone who is younger than I am probably won't remember life before Facebook, much less life before cell phones and e-mail. I didn't get my first cell phone until I was in high school. Today, 10 year olds have cell phones and Facebook accounts. And more importantly, they never play outside anymore.

But let me focus on one particular thought. I think that our glory days are long gone. In the context of sports, will there ever be another Pele, Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, or Michael Jordan? There may be players in sports who are as good as those legends, or better, but I don't believe they will ever be remembered as icons in the same way. They won't be our heroes. They will never carve their names into history, only record books. They will never be a standard to which all future players will be compared.

By no means am I a big sports nerd. I don't collect statistics and I usually don't even watch many games. But this year I actually followed college basketball through the 2nd half of the season, and watched most of the NCAA tournament. My family is from Syracuse, and of course going to Vanderbilt I had two teams to root for. And I was very excited for the World Cup. Several times I have woken up at 6:30 in order to watch a soccer game. I am hoping for a 1974 Finals rematch between Germany and the Netherlands.

Brazil plays beautiful soccer but A) they have won it 5 times already, and B) I find that a lot of South American teams just get too emotional and get angry when things don't go their way, and I don't like that. I don't like Argentina because they are full of superstars that are too full of themselves, led by former superstar Diego Maradona, who has an ego the size of South America.

I love German soccer because they are so organized and professional. But more than anything they are so unselfish. I would love to see the Netherlands win because they had one of the best teams to never win the World Cup. The Netherlands and Germany both look like Championship teams so I can see them both making the Final, and then I don't know who I'd root for. Either way it would be a terrific match.

I think the reason the Golden Age is long past and will never return is that people have lost the connection with their roots. Technology has the power to bring people together, but nothing can replace direct contact. Back in the day there was a sense of community, as well as real national pride. Of course there were plenty of terrible things going on. Every age has it's embarrassing and shameful moments. But I sometimes I wish life hadn't changed so much. I wish families ate almost all their dinners together. I wish children had more respect for their parents and their elders. I wish there was a place where everybody knows my name.

Even if you don't live in New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles, it's hard to be more than a number in a faceless crowd. Life is more than getting from point A to point B; it is more than making enough money to retire in luxury. It's not what you do so much as how you do it and with whom you share those experiences.