Before I begin my article, I would like to dedicate it to a certain gentleman who has been pressurizing me to add to Mary's blog. The gentleman in question even verbalized that I could write about anything at all - not only about our boy in Ethiopia. So after much thought, here is my piece titled My Dilemma. (In the following article the word football means soccer as my family, friends, etc. would disown me for using the 's' word.)
I am from the country where football is king, fish and chips were the only food not rationed during the Second World War, the words boot and bonnet describe parts of a car, and serving a pint of beer without a head is considered a crime. With examples like these, wouldn't it seem an injustice not to expose our boy to the land his father comes from? More importantly, what football team should he embrace and this is my dilemma!
I am from an industrial town near Manchester in England called Bolton, which has a football team that has donned the white shirts and blue shorts for well over a hundred years. Over the last few decades, Bolton Wanderers has become a mercurial football team, toppling the giants of the game and then losing to marginal teams the following week. This form makes for a season-long odyssey. Supporting them, as you may have guessed, is not easy and the future looks ominous. Therefore, when our boy comes home and is introduced to the beautiful game should he become a Bolton fan with years of disappointment, bewilderment, and confusion ahead of him or take on another team that his father has a soft-spot for and where there is a hope of breaking down the big-guns of the league and winning the Holy Grail of the club game. As I marinate my dilemma, please feel free to share your thoughts, advice... etc.. I would especially like to hear from the gentleman whose family comes from a country which invented the beautiful game, where winning the World Cup is an annoying habit, and where I hope my family will be for the 2014 World Cup.
Chris
2 comments:
That is a dilemma Chris. One that I have suffered from in my years of the American version of football being an MSU Spartan fan. Watching them beat high ranked teams and ruining perfect seasons for them, then the next week losing to a nobody team. However, even through all the years of frustration and heartbreak, it is my alma mater, where my heart lies, and the only team I will teach my daughters to love as well. Hannah already knows the "Sparty" song. I say, go Bolton...cheer on the blue and white!
By the way...good to hear from you!
Chris,
Let me begin by wishing YOU a wonderful anniversary! Secondly, let me inform you that my (cyberspace) life is now complete and I can go forth and live happily.
As for the dilemma: you want to be able to take your son to game and explain live and in person what makes it so beautiful. While this is nearly impossible at Old Trafford, I imagine it is quite possible at Reebok Stadium. Something also has to be said for supporting the hometown team, and while Manchester isn't far, it is the name of city other than Bolton. Besides, wearing a Bolton jersey says much more for ones football knowledge and passion than wearing the same of the Red Devils (think Boston Red Sox fan). With all that said, I'm obviously in the Bolton camp. Go Wanderers!!! You are now excused from this blog until sometime in 2009. Thanks for giving into peer pressure.
Post a Comment