reading material

Back at school, one of our oft-repeated conversations goes something like this:

"Ms. P, why don't you like soccer?" one of the life-long, die-hard devotees of "the beautiful game" will ask.

"Because I'm an American," I reply with a shrug, every time. Because part of my job is to drive them insane.

But at lunch I'll let them show me video of Christian Ronaldo or check scores from the Cup qualifying, and they're always asking if I'm going to watch the US play, or if I saw what happened to Argentina, and sometimes I know the reference. That's also part of my job. Knowing my fondness for other sports, they may be trying to convert me, but we all know I'm never gonna appreciate "football" as they do, or, you know, at all. And yet this fourteen page story about youth soccer in Georgia is the best thing I've read in a while. Because, in both places, it's all about the kids.