So here it is, my long winded World Cup post. For those that don’t know, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to South Africa to see a couple World Cup games and soak up the atmosphere in a country truly embracing the World Cup fever. It’s been a crazy last four of five days and here is an overview with pictures of videos of the experience.

After a long travel day I arrived Thursday afternoon in Johannesburg and was met by Brendan Vargas, a longtime friend who lives in Mozambique, and his buddy (now my buddy) Cornel, an Afrikaner who lives in Pretoria and let us stay at his place. We made the short trip to Cornel’s house, dropped off the bags, and quickly made it to a local bar/restaurant to watch the night match between Mexico and France. The night was pretty chill. We ordered some food, had a few brews and talked with the many visitors to the place. It was great to meet and talk to people from all over the world. Unfortunately I forgot to grab my camera before we left the house, but I was able to grab this photo with my phone of myself, an Afrikaner, and a Dutch supporter.

Friday was match day between the U.S. and Slovenia. We woke up late morning, grabbed some coffee, and met up with more of Brendan’s friends from Mozambique. We all made the drive into downtown Johannesburg and found our way towards the stadium (after making a stop to purchase a few vuvuzelas) just in time to watch Serbia close it out against Germany. Afterward we found our way to our seats. Here is a quick clip of the fan area outside the stadium before the game:

Here are photos from throughout the day.

Saturday was another match day. This time in Pretoria and between Cameroon and Denmark. Although it wasn’t the United States, I was very excited to see the match because it involved an African nation and I wanted to see how the local supporters responded. I wasn’t disappointed, but more on that later. The match didn’t start until 8:30 at night however, so we had to kill some time. What better way to do it then head to the local college hot spot that was overrun with World Cup visitors? The place was packed with Denmark supporters “warming up” before the night match. There were also Dutch supporters, watching the early match, and then Ghanaian supporters showed up to watch their match with Japan. It was truly a great mix of people from around the world, all celebrating the game.

At one point I walked next door to a local market. While there I saw some performers busting a move. I thought it was pretty cool, so I got a quick clip of that.

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. I was introduced to the South African tradition of the “Braai”, which is essentially a backyard barbecue. Cornel’s neighbor put out a TV and we had friends over to enjoy the matches while we barbecued meat and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. Here are pictures from the braai.

And that was pretty much it. The next day I woke up, went to the airport, and somehow managed to switch flights and avoid going to Lagos, Nigeria (evidently I needed a visa that I didn’t have). After 28 hours of traveling, I made it home (four hours before my bag). It was a complete blast, an experience that truly hasn’t sunk in yet. I am truly thankful to all that made it happen, especially my beautiful wife who not only let me blow our money by making the trip, but for smiling as I did. I kept saying it was a once in a lifetime experience. It probably will be, but a part of me hopes it wasn’t…

…One last thing…

I heard this song at least twenty times a day while I was there. It’s stuck in my head…

“The heresy of individualism: thinking oneself a completely self-sufficient unit and asserting this imaginary ‘unity’ against all others. The affirmation of the self as simply ‘not the other.’ But when you seek to affirm your unity by denying that you have anything to do with anyone else, by negating everyone else in the universe until you come down to you: what is there left to affirm? Even if there were something to affirm, you would have no breath left with which to affirm it. The true way is just the opposite: the more I am able to affirm others, to say ‘yes’ to them in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in them, the more real I am. I am fully real if my own heart says yes to everyone.“ Thomas Merton

In my Air Force career I have been fortunate to visit more than 30 countries. I have played soccer with the Turkish, sung Karaoke with the Japanese, and drunk Maté with the Uruguayans. If there is one thing I have learned from interacting with people from all over the world, it is this: we are all the same. Each of us desires companionship, love, respect, and acceptance. Most importantly, each of us is a child of God.

After reading the above Merton quote I was reminded of how much alike we really are. Individualism, and even more so ethnocentrism, is something that tears at the heart until it is unable to love anything but what is close and familiar. It is what fuels racism and violence…and ignorance. In the religious sense, individualism is a blindfold to truth and understanding, and unless we take it off we can never see what God has intended for us to learn and understand: that we are all the same, and that we all came from the same place: the hands of God.

So what then should our response be? I do not think it can be anything but what God has commanded us to do from the beginning. Love. Love your neighbor; love your enemy. Love those who look different; love those who worship different. I truly believe that a response of true love towards God’s creation would alleviate much of the individualism and ethnocentrism in society. It does not need to happen in the next blink of my eyes, but it can happen over time.

I suppose the trick would be to start small. We begin by loving our neighbor, the atheist. We begin by loving our co-worker, the Jew, or our classmate, the Muslim. We love them not because we understand them, but because they are God’s creation.

And then we listen. We listen to their stories; we listen to their beliefs. We listen for what we share rather than what we do not understand. I think we would be surprised by what we would learn if we listened. If we listen and love, as God loves, we can see that we come from the same place, and need the same thing to survive.

Currently Reading: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.

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Spent this last weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. Steph and I were both looking forward to taking pictures, especially of the Biltmore Estate and house, but unfortunately the camera decided to stop working just as we arrived. This is the only picture we could get.

We did get a few others of us goofing around the night before. Click here to see those.

Spent this last weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. Steph and I were both looking forward to taking pictures, but unfortunately the camera decided to stop working just as we arrived at the Biltmore House. We did get one picture of the house, and a couple of us the night before when we broke out the camera. Not what we were expecting, but it’s better than nothing. Here are a few fun ones.

People often argue that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, rather he was a great teacher – a man from whom we could all learn.

I never liked that argument, and a paragraph out of A Layman’s Guide to Protestant Theology does a good job of explaining why:

If Jesus was not and is not the Son of God, insists (John Gresham) Machen, then he is the very reverse of a reliable teacher of ethics. For Jesus claimed to be divine; he claimed to have authority over men; he claimed to do that which only God can do – forgive sins; he claimed to be the Messiah, foretelling that he would return on the clouds of heaven; he asserted that he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If Jesus were only a man and claimed these things, he cannot be our example, for he was either a madman or a charlatan.

Word.

Currently Reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

I took a basic values inventory for class tonight and guess what? I am task oriented and achievement focused. Surprise, Surprise.

Or not.

It’s not a stretch to say that tasks have consumed my entire adult life. In my work and at home I will often lose myself in a task, so much so that I will avoid getting up for anything – even food – until I complete what’s in front of me. Last night I didn’t eat until 9pm. Why? I had to finish what I was doing. It’s 9 right now and I still haven’t eaten. It’s bad, and it’s been worse. Just ask my wife…if it weren’t for her I would go many nights without food.

Finishing something translates into achieving something so I’m not surprised that was a value as well. One of the questions in the analysis asked whether I was more concerned with accomplishment than holding a certain position or title. Easy. I will always take an achievement over a title or position and sometimes am frustrated with those who worry about titles more so than getting the job done.

But there’s where I learned something. Not that achievement and task orientation are things I value highly, but that they are just…values.

Values are personal, and perhaps more importantly, variable. Not everybody shares the same values and is it not better for me to come to this realization than to assume my values are common laws that everyone should follow? I am not sure why that is suddenly clear, but in taking the analysis I knew that each person would have different results. I also knew that my results reflected values that are important to me, and if they are important to me than they are important to others. Perhaps understanding that is the first step to full acceptance of others as they are, even if the step is a small one. At least it’s in the right direction.

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I’m sure I’ll write here again. Someday. Right now my focus is on other things. Like starting the New Year off a little less narcissistic. (Sooner or later you realize your opinion doesn’t matter. Maybe it comes when you hit 30, I do in two weeks.)

I’m also reading more. I’ve finished a number of books lately including Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, which I strongly recommend. Other than that I’m studying, enjoying life away from the web, and concentrating on beating my siblings and wife at Words with Friends. These things are important.

Currently Reading: Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan

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