At SFO, his "little" brother and I welcomed our soccer player home from his 16-day European adventure, where he and his teammates enjoyed great successes, along with defeats, frustrations, miscues, and teenager mischief, among many other things. Overshadowing some of his joy at returning was his knowledge of the awful mass murder that shook a neighboring country, Norway, just as he was leaving Sweden to return home.
He said a Swedish boy had talked to him about the incident, before he had heard any news reports, and he assumed he was speaking about a tragedy in the distant past. The boy seemed disoriented.
Then, on one of his long plane rides during the 24-hour trip home, he read a news report and put it all together. "This is their 9/11," he told me. "They weren't ready for something like this, I don't know. They're just nicer than what we're used to here in America. More innocent."
As he was recounting this to me, I thought back to ten years ago, when as a little boy he silently entered the room as I watched the second jet crash into the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001.
Maybe that's when he lost some his own innocence; maybe that's why this weekend's shocking assault in Norway affected him the way he did.
Anyway, having him home safe is yet another reminder how precious each and every life truly is, how fragile we all are, and how powerful is the love that binds families and friends together.
There is also the matter of the medal he wears around his neck. He is, not just in his family's eyes now, a champion. He and his teammates have earned that label.
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