A recent appointment took me to Vancouver and the window overlooking False Creek and city skyline where
Science World's dome was dressed like a soccer ball for FIFA playing at
BC Place. I watched a few televised matches and got swept up in the energy, just as crowds in the stadiums did. Their wild excitement reminded me that humans once gathered in coliseums and town squares for contests ending in death and public executions. Now we settle for relatively mild injuries and distant violence, easier on our supposed “evolved sensibilities.” Still, FIFA players showed we are better off entwined in hugs and handshakes at battle's end. And as my poem for
Poets and Storytellers United suggests, a desperate need to win, not just in sports and physical fights but in emotional arguments, can find us unraveling as if our very survival hangs by a thread.
At ground-level amid the highrises, victory for seagulls means heisting a tasty snack.
