“For a little while, you get glimpses of the world as I wish it could be more often,” writes Kiran Singh Sirah
I’m not a massive sports fan. I like sports, but every four years, getting to watch the World Cup feels like a beautiful experience of a beautiful game.
What I love most is the camaraderie that happens around it. For a little while, you get glimpses of the world as I wish it could be more often.
On social media, you see a Yorkshire man visiting the United States, trying catfish and cheesy grits for the first time. You see English fans being embraced by the beauty of Mexican culture and tradition, made to feel at home in ways I have always felt with my friends of Mexican heritage in Tennessee and around this nation. You see Scots placing a cone on statues in Boston, and the mayor offering a formal gift of friendship between Glasgow and Boston. You see Norwegian fans doing the “Ro Ro Ro” chant in Times Square.
The fact that Canada, the U.S., and Mexico are jointly hosting is quite incredible, too, and deeply beautiful. And to see nations with populations of just half a million, like Cabo Verde, do so well and return home to be celebrated as heroes, especially as they celebrate their independence, is really moving.
I called my dad and asked, “Who are you supporting?”
“England, of course!”
My step mum joked that Harry Kane, now Sir Curry Kane to us, goes great with rice (as in “Declan Rice”) and we had a good laugh about it on the family WhatsApp chat. Then I teased my brother, who is also a big England fan, and told him I might support the other team just to wind him up a bit.
I think of my nephews and nieces back home, cheering for their team at 3am, as children all over the world do the same. And, of course, I enjoy the friendly, mostly friendly, Scottish-English rivalry banter too.
There is nostalgia, too. I remember watching the World Cup as a kid with my whole family- watching Zico, Lineker, Ruud Gullit, Maradona, and so many others.
Of course, there are political agendas and controversies. Some I agree with, some I don’t. But as a peacebuilder, storyteller, artist, and folklorist, I love seeing arts, culture, food, music, language, humor, and the diverse traditions of people from different nations being embraced. Even if temporarily, the world’s game – football – becomes a catalyst for imagining what a more united world could look and feel like.
And alongside all of that, of course, there is football itself. Watching the players, so passionate and committed, striving with all their heart and soul, to place that final goal in the net.
Whether one’s team won, lost, or didn’t even make it in this year, the World Cup reminds us that this is a sport, played and loved by people in every nation.
I love these little glimpses of hope and joy. And, I truly love what it allows me to imagine.
First published on Facebook, reproduced with the permission of the author – Featured image thanks to Getty Images via unsplash.com
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