Many things in life are much more important than sports, of course, but not necessarily in the minds of children of a certain age. All six of my kids competed in one sport or another, some of them in multiple sports, and a few of them at relatively elite levels.
So it was that ten years ago this week one of my sons was in Denmark celebrating with his soccer teammates after they'd won a championship in their division in the Dana Cup.
It's one of the world's largest
futbol tournaments and it has been hosted
in the North Jutland town of Hjørring ever since 1982.
For a kid playing soccer, it feels sort of like a junior World Cup.
It also was my 16-year-old's first trip to Europe and his longest time away from home at that time. I tried to follow his team's progress from afar, which proved to be difficult due to the time difference and the inconsistent communications we received from the kids and their coaches while they were traveling.
But the results of each match were to be posted on a page of the tournament website soon after a game was completed, as well as information about the time of the team's next game.
Most nights I was up at 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, checking on the scores and then emailing a list of other parents information about how our boys were doing on the other side of the world. When they finally won the championship I screamed with joy into the night in my otherwise empty apartment.
I hope I didn't disturb my neighbors.
My son was living out one of his dreams, it's true, but he was living out one of mine as well. I never got very far in sports as a kid thanks to rheumatic fever and a heart murmur. But that didn't stop my childhood dreams from recurring decades later in the form of rooting for my kids.
None of them went on to careers in sports; very few young people do. And they are all grown up now, some of them with kids of their own who play sports and compete for championships.
So these days my role is to be there on the sidelines cheering for my grandchildren. It's a simple proposition -- if they win we are happy, if they lose we are sad. At these games I see the dads of kids pacing on the sidelines nervously. I see moms wearing the team colors and screaming their support. Younger siblings race around the stands, oblivious that for some of the adults this is about something more than fun.
Hearts get broken out there when dreams don't come true. But the games go on, win or lose, the kids keep growing, and eventually just about all of them will leave these youthful pursuits behind as they adjust their sights on more achievable goals.
Hearts get broken in life too -- pretty much all the time. That's the way it goes and nobody is keeping score. For now, however, these childish dreams are alive. Therefore, so are some of mine.
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Moon wobble and climate change could cause ‘double whammy’ of U.S. flooding in 2030s, NASA warns
(WP) * How Artificial Intelligence Is Fighting Wildfires (California Today)
* A team of UCSF scientists was able to translate the unspoken words of a completely paralyzed man into written speech, a transformative step toward developing implantable brain devices that could allow people no longer able to speak to communicate fluently. (SF Chronicle)
* Vaccine deliveries rising as delta virus variant slams Asia (AP)
* ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ grows into hostility as conservatives attack efforts (WP)
* Delta Variant Widens Gulf Between ‘Two Americas’: Vaccinated and Unvaccinated (NYT)
* Dutch crime reporter De Vries dies after Amsterdam shooting (AP)
* Biden sees U.S. child tax credit as 'giant step' to counter poverty (Reuters)
* Families Are Receiving A Child Tax Credit. Janet Yellen Says It Should Be Permanent (NPR)
* Joint Chiefs head feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ from Trump (WP)
* Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was deeply worried that then-President Donald Trump would refuse to leave the White House and warned colleagues he feared Trump would try to use the military to stay in office, according to excerpts from a new book. Milley, the nation’s top military officer, also compared Trump’s actions to the rise of Adolf Hitler. [HuffPost] * Man who dangled from Senate balcony pleads guilty in Capitol riots, will cooperate against others (WP)
* Europe Unveils Plan to Shift From Fossil Fuels, Setting Up Potential Trade Spats (NYT)
* U.S. military once trained Colombians implicated in Haiti assassination plot, Pentagon says (WP)
* Evacuations for Afghans Who Helped U.S. Troops Will Begin This Month (NYT)
* Afghanistan’s neighbors wary as US seeks nearby staging area (AP)
* Democrats are readying a massive $3.5 trillion infrastructure package stuffed full of money for housing, nutrition, climate, health care, immigration, child care, and more. But passing a bill of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression will require holding a fractious party together and could blow up at any moment. [HuffPost]
* Schumer Proposes Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana (NYT)
* U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits (Reuters)
* At local minimum-wage rates, a worker would have to put in 79 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental, according to a new report. “One full-time job should be enough,” the report says, urging the federal government to raise the minimum wage. [HuffPost]
* The Battle Over State Voting Rights Is About the Future of Texas --The current skirmish is the latest in a tug of war being waged between the state’s increasingly Democratic cities and its deeply conservative rural areas. (NYT)
* WHO chief says it was ‘premature’ to rule out COVID lab leak (AP)
* Americans Who Still Haven’t Made Up Their Mind Gather In Massive Demonstration To Express Ambivalence (The Onion)
***
"Dreaming My Dreams"
Sung by Waylon Jennings and many others
Written by Allen Reynolds
I hope that I won't be that wrong anymore
And maybe I've learned this time
I hope that I find what I'm reaching for
The way that it is in my mind
Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you
But I won't let it change me
Not if I can
I'd rather believe in love
And give it away as much as I can
To those that I'm fondest of
Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you
Someday I'll get over you
I'll live to see it all through
But I'll always miss
Dreaming my dreams with you
-30-
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