Okay, I gave the FIFA World Cup a try. I watched one match – USA vs. Belgium – from start to finish. I saw every kick, pass, dribble and header; every goal and every miss; every injury whether real or flop. It was interesting but not electric, at least not for me.
It’s not that I don’t like soccer. I just don’t know the game, and that’s mostly because I didn’t grow up with it. And that, in turn, is because it wasn’t “fed” to me or instilled in me by my parents. I didn’t watch it and learn it because my parents hadn’t watched it and learned it.
My father was a football fan, followed by, well, I’m not sure what else. Definitely not baseball or hockey. The only time I saw him watch baseball on TV was when we were in the student union at Baylor on a Friday night for homecoming and along with hundreds of others saw the Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees to go to the World Series for the first time.
Dad didn’t watch basketball when I was growing up, but I recall him watching the Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat in 2016 in a restaurant in Colorado during my parent’s 50th anniversary celebration. I know he watched more college basketball in his later years as more teams and especially Baylor got more TV time.
When football was out of season, Dad liked to watch golf on Sunday afternoons during the heyday of Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Norman, Trevino and Kite. And he became a Tiger fan, but then didn’t we all? I enjoyed watching golf with him and even played a little in the 1990s when my job called for it. I haven’t played in years, and I don’t watch anymore.
The point is: I followed what my parents followed, and that was football, and that was mostly Baylor and the Southwest Conference on Saturdays and the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL on Sundays and Monday nights. My parents both enjoyed the spectacle, the action, the strategies, the players and coaches and their personalities. And of course, that rubbed off on me.
As for playing? I have a leather helmet from Dad’s childhood. I don’t recall him ever talking about playing, but I heard lots about his days as a yell leader at Sherman High School. I played on YMCA and city league teams in Richardson all the way up to fifth grade when our Texas Power & Light Steers were city champs. But like Dad, I was average physically and watched the junior high and high school games from the band section.
I recall playing soccer maybe one season, probably YMCA, and that was it. That was in the 1960s and one of the many times over the decades when sports promoters predicted soccer was finally going to take hold in the United States. Maybe with World Cup here in the United States and in North Texas that will finally happen. But not with me because it wasn’t woven into my DNA as a child.
Other things not woven into my DNA – and I wish they had been – are learning a foreign language and especially Spanish, snow skiing and cooking. However, things that were woven into my DNA that I enjoy and appreciate today are music, writing, outdoors and hiking, gardening, faith and participation in church.
Children follow adults closely, especially the ones they bond with as parents, grandparents, church friends or good neighbors. There’s a lot of power in that, and a lot of responsibility too. Our leadership can influence a child’s preferences and attitudes about many aspects of life: food, art, entertainment, athletics, hobbies and pastimes, church and faith practices. More seriously, our words, behaviors and priorities can impact their attitudes, outlooks, aspirations, goals, biases, generosity and faith.
As I write this, LeAnn is at Godly Play Camp at Wilshire. Godly Play is a new-to-Wilshire Sunday school curriculum for preschool children. At first glance it might seem over the heads of the littlest ones, but I’ve witnessed the way they listen, ask questions, and repeat aspects of the stories and lessons to each other during play time. What’s certain is these kids are at just the right age to be exposed to the stories of the Bible in such a unique and meaningful way.
It’s very different from the way I learned the stories of the Bible, but the way I learned was fine. What’s important is I got started early and learned to be a lifelong learner through reading, listening, praying, questioning and even writing. A lot of that is about exploring the nuances of the scriptures and being OK when a passage leaves me scratching my head.
Similarly, it’s OK with me if the nuances of soccer are not my thing. I would have followed the U.S. team through the next round had they defeated Belgium because national pride and love of country were instilled in me early on. So was loyalty to one’s alma mater, and while the rest of the world is absorbed with World Cup, I’m on a serious countdown to the first kickoff in Waco in September.