Simple joys

It passes all understanding how anyone could chase after a round ball for 90 minutes, produce no score or maybe a draw and occasionally a result, whilst really just going around in circles in a recurring lottery that occasionally yields a goal. It is especially ludicrous when one could be doing so much more with what was once a pig's bladder. Simply put, Soccer costs the average spectator about $150 per point, whereas rugby costs about $5 per point, so which is really delivering the greater spectator value?

The fact is that half the world could care less and the adjacent Netherlands world cup supporter, who was caught in a news camera, certainly cares less. Soccer is their game or football as they prefer to call it, even if that is actually a generic name for many sports.

So why is it so popular? Have you ever taken a ball to an unblooded two year old black boy. His response is written in his genes. He knows instinctively what to do with it and will not lose much time in setting up goals or coopting a few friends.

That is true, generally of all poor cultures, because a round ball is the simplest and cheapest of all joys. It requires no expensive setup, always commands a good following and has few rules. It makes for a very accessible sport. Many other sports are biased towards the upper classes because they are so beyond the reach of the poor.

That got me thinking about religion. Many, throughout history, cranked up religion and layered in all kinds of rules and dogmas, rituals and rites, until it simply became inaccessible to the poor masses. Maybe the greater inditement was that it exposed the poor and reinforced class distinctions. However, that was never the intent of God, who used very ordinary souls to write great stories and reveal profound truth to the simplest of hearts. As such, the faith became foolishness to the wise. 

I am not about to celebrate a faith that excludes either rich or poor. The fact remains that God's heart reflects a simple aestheticism, a down-to-earthness that appeals to both rich an poor. Do not the rich admire natural beauty and the wonders of the created world? Well God accomodates that and the bible fully satisfies their intellectual needs. Yet the poor, with no resources to enjoy such pleasures, simply enjoy the energy and dynamics of the street - and God accomodates that too, bringing both classes to the common ground of the cross and the simple, unmarbled, unspoilt elegance of that traveling supper we call the breaking of bread.   

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net