America’s World Cup Runneth Over

Audio By Carbonatix

For the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying an event that isn’t actually taking place on the field.

Sure, there have been soccer matches, of which I know nothing about. But the real entertainment has been watching the world discover America.

Friends—good news! The world came to America and largely liked what it found. 

If only our political/cultural captors would allow us—the citizenry—to do the same, to enjoy our country.

The Scots marched through Boston with bagpipes. Heck yeah, Hamishes!

Dutch fans filled entire stadium sections in coordinated orange, drowning the world in Viking, rowing chants…or whatever fierce force that was.

Japanese fans quietly picked up trash after matches because that’s simply what they do. Delightful. Arigato.

And Americans, in return, have been reminded that unique cultures are not problems to be solved. Unique identity and culture are not a pox on us all to be healed and melted away in our giant ridiculous pot.

They are gifts to be enjoyed. Revered and preserved, even. 

For years we’ve been told that strong cultural identities are somehow dangerous. 

Or at least we have been told that ours is.  A thing to be grieved and repented. 

Everyone else’s culture though? They are glorious and good. But the second Americans feel patriotic pride or protective instincts…Fascists! Nationalists! While we offer halal only lunches to the children of ranchers and farmers and have Islamic calls to prayer blasted on our streets. 

Patriotism and pride for thee but nor for we? For us, the oppressors, shame and coals heaped on our heads. Why is that? What makes us so dangerous??

I’ll give you a hint…GOD-GIVEN inalienable rights.

In our Marxist adrift America, national pride is suspect. Faith is a fault. Anything that brings stability must be deconstructed. 

Traditions should be softened, flattened, abandoned, and blended until nobody stands out and nobody offends. If the homogeny smoothie is best and bland is best, why am I crying watching the Scots march on Boston in kilts playing their songs of old?? Crying, and not one single time being jealous, feeling intimidated, or wishing I was a Scot, but wishing desperately that they get to remain to be. 

Then the World Cup arrived.

And suddenly everyone is cheering for exactly the things we’ve been told to erase.

The Scots are Scottish.

The Dutch are Dutch.

The Japanese are Japanese.

The Americans are American.

And everyone seems to be fine with it and having a wonderful time.

This is the true diversity we say value and desire, but hate to see it actually occur.

The internet has been filled with visitors marveling at things Americans barely notice anymore.

The free refills.

The crushed ice.

The portion sizes.

The giant pickup trucks.

The breathtaking national parks.

The friendliness of strangers.

The sheer scale of everything.

And of course, Buc-ee’s.

If extraterrestrials ever visit Earth, I suspect someone will eventually take them to Buc-ee’s and simply explain, “This is what happens when freedom, brisket, and Exxon get married and start a family.”

What has fascinated me most is how much goodwill has been generated by ordinary interactions.

Not speeches.

Not diplomacy.

Not government programs.

Not obnoxious celebrities in their struggle sessions, weeping over how ashamed they are of their birthright. Muh. Gah.

Genuine kindness from people who are proud to be hosting THE WORLD.

People meeting people. 

That’s the secret ingredient. Encountering each other. Not invading, not conquering, corrupting, or defrauding. Not one culture overwhelming or replacing it with another. Observing us in our element and us observing they in theirs. 

Travelers discovering that Americans are often kinder than advertised.

Americans discovering that the world doesn’t hate us as much as our leaders have tried to convince us it does. 

It turns out many of our supposed enemies are just people trying to find parking and figure out where to buy sunscreen.

Imagine that.

For decades we’ve been encouraged to view ourselves primarily through the lens of our failures.

Our history.

Or rather, only through our selective and revised history. Slavery? We warred it. Racism? We fought it. But the wrestling and prevailing are stricken from the record.  

We must be known by our flaws.

Our divisions and shortcomings.

And yet visitors keep arriving and seeing something else entirely.

Not perfection. Not even overt PRIDE. Gasp! How has the world even functioned after coming to our shores in June and not being congratulated or coerced into celebrating PRIDE month?!

It’s as though it was always pagan idolatry that was entirely unnecessary to the whole of the planet.

Generosity. Opportunity. Optimism. Humor. Humility. Hospitality. 

That’s who we are and always have been—a nation imperfect enough to criticize and correct itself and prosperous enough to be generous to the world anyway.

I don’t know how economists will calculate the value of this moment. I don’t know whether it changes a single vote in the next election. I don’t know whether it shows up in any official report. And I am certain that Trump will never be given the credit due for hosting the World Cup.

But I suspect something valuable has happened.

Millions of people have experienced America firsthand rather than through headlines, rather than through the forced filters and lenses of a media and ruling class that benefits from our division and distress. 

And millions of Americans have been reminded of something we once knew instinctively.

We are extraordinarily blessed.

Not because we are better than everyone else.

But because we have inherited something remarkable.

Freedom and Faith. 

The appropriate response to that inheritance isn’t arrogance. Or self-immolation. 

It’s gratitude. Gratitude and grit enough to refuse ever being drug back into the shadows of societal shame again. 

The world has spent a few weeks reminding us of what we’ve forgotten.

America is still a pretty amazing place. I say again, we are abundant in freedom and faith. If only we will work to keep it. 

And perhaps what we need most right now isn’t another lecture about why we should hate one ourselves and each other. 

Perhaps we need a little more gratitude.

And a little more goodwill.

Both, it seems, are overflowing from our world cups.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!