Two World Cup Goals, and the Question of the Individual Versus the Collective
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Highlights
- But I don’t know. I do think that sports furnishes metaphors for the rest of life. That’s not controversial. That’s how it’s always worked. And soccer’s openness to different kinds of metaphors, its adaptability to different metaphorical frames—different ways of imagining what we’re doing here, in this life, when we’re not fixing lethal radiation leaks and disarming hired thugs, or maybe even when we are—that’s one of the most fascinating aspects of the game to me. Also one of the strangest.
- Well, thank goodness we don’t have to choose. Soccer gives us both these possibilities, and it gives every possibility between them. Every nuance on the continuum. It’s a surprisingly nuanced game, soccer, for a sport that once prominently featured John Terry. And maybe that’s the real wonder of it. It doesn’t limit itself to being one thing or another. In whatever subtle subliminal way sports is capable of helping us see the world, soccer shows us our own thoughts, and it also shows us other ways of thinking. The game is a mirror that’s also a door.