So, after yesterday\u2019s doom and gloom post I was glad that today we were out of the house for something a lot less depressing.\u00a0 We were picking up Princess Sack of Potatoes for a sleep over.\u00a0 And before coming home we watched her team\u2019s weekly soccer game.\u00a0 Now any parent knows that five- and six-year-olds playing soccer consists mostly of a scrum of eight or ten kids in a circle kicking the ball back and forth at each other\u2019s shin guards.\u00a0 Luckily at this stage of my career as a soccer spectator all I\u2019m looking for is a lack of drama from the parents and at least one goal for \u201cour side.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the soccer gods were smiling down on us today and \u201cour side\u201d got most of the goals.\u00a0 But more accurately the Two Jakes got almost all the goals.\u00a0 And it was something of a doppelganger experience.\u00a0 Each team had a little boy named Jake.\u00a0 And each Jake was probably about four feet tall with closely cropped dirty blond hair, the number \u201c4\u201d on his jersey and a monomaniacal drive to get the ball in the goal.\u00a0 These two boys were the only players on the field who knew how to dribble the soccer ball and this allowed them to dominate the ball until faced by a wall of opponents.<\/p>\n
Luckily for our side, their coach had drilled them all to run for the goal if the other team got the ball and this allowed us to effectively limit their Jake to two goals.\u00a0 Unfortunately for the other team, their coach hadn\u2019t equipped them with this strategy so our Jake had the opportunity to score about a half dozen goals.<\/p>\n
Other than the coincidences of name, number and appearance there is nothing unusual about two teams at this age only having one competent striker.\u00a0 But the reason I mention this situation has to do the with the boys\u2019 fathers.\u00a0 Because they were both cheering on their sons with the same name, they caught each other\u2019s attention and began a conversation that I could overhear.<\/p>\n
And it was a pleasant surprise to hear them both comparing notes on their sons\u2019 drive to score goals.\u00a0 Both of them complimented the other on their son\u2019s skills and both seemed to disclaim having anything to do with it.\u00a0 You could tell they were both a little proud but neither was at all wound up while watching the game and there wasn\u2019t any of the embarrassing sidelines haranguing that is so awful to see at these games.\u00a0 There was plenty of applause and cheering when goals were scored (or missed) but both of them behaved as adults watching very young children play a game.\u00a0 Compared to the behavior of so many parents at these events, it was a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n
And that provided me with just enough hope for humanity to shake off the grim shadow of life in Joe Biden\u2019s America for today.\u00a0 When we got home, I spent a little time talking about the game with my granddaughter and discovered that for her the most important things about the game were that they had scored at least one goal and that they got to buy something from the ice cream truck.\u00a0 And in retrospect her priorities seem about right.<\/p>\n
But it was nice to see two grown men behaving like grown men.\u00a0 Maybe that leads to two more grown men a generation from now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, after yesterday\u2019s doom and gloom post I was glad that today we were out of the house for something a lot less depressing.\u00a0 We<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263,2860],"tags":[2093],"class_list":["post-30590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-reclaiming-the-family"],"yoast_head":"\n