It struck me this weekend, in a humbling, sleep-disturbing way, how spectacularly rare and significant it is to have someone in life who really understands you, and with whom you can look at the world in sympathy. And how horrifying the concept of not having that is.

I've been in both of those states, and I'm frustrated that I've failed to appreciate that significance every day. I'm hoping there's still time for me to learn.

Labels: Life

Gay marriage is good because murder is bad.

That may seem like a puzzling statement, but bear with me for a moment. I was thinking about the Biblical approach to morality and how it's been applied as really the only thing approaching an "objective" rationale for banning gay marriage. (I'll leave aside the very dubious Biblical basis for homophobia, since it's given about as much weight by God as His supposed support for making animal sacrifices.)

Let's step back for a second and look at an example of morality: murder. In the Bible, God forbids murder, calling it a sin and raising a commandment against it. Now, objectively speaking, is murder a bad thing for any other reason than God's will? Can any Christian honestly say that the only reason that murder is bad is because God forbids it? If God changed His mind, would murder suddenly be okay and accepted?

Of course not. Not in our time, not in any time. There's a basic, functional level on which murder is wrong, and an emotional level too, which have nothing to do with any religion. Long before Christianity, civilizations banned murder for a variety of reasons. In our modern world, there are myriad laws and regulations regarding things not even dreamt of in Biblical times.

What that all means is that even in our supposedly "Christian" nation, Biblical morality is not the only basis for our culture and laws. Thus, Biblical morality is not absolute, and thus it immediately becomes invalidated as the one source and limit of our laws.

In the absence of a Biblical justification, any practical arguments against allowing gay marriage quickly fall apart. The most common argument, that gay marriage is a "slippery slope" to any imaginable cojoining of creatures being recognized by the state, is an empty one. Very simply, marriage can be defined once and for all as occurring between two consenting adults. There. Wasn't that easy?

To make it even simpler, we could adopt an idea I recently read about online, which is to remove from churches the legal ability to enact civil unions. That way, churches could hold whatever ceremonies they want to (or don't want to), wedding people in the eyes of God; but the actual legal, government-sanctioned contract between two people would be a function of the state. That way, churches could continue to discriminate if they wished, but people in love who don't fit their preferred description could still have happy, devoted, and legally recognized relationships.

When you're not limited by the dogmatic blinders of organized religion, so much more--so much good--becomes possible.

Labels: Culture

I still have your key
Though you've long since moved away
What does it open?

Labels: Poems

An exciting day today, for better and for worse, and worth a standalone post.

Australia 3, Japan 1
Australia has had a drought of over 30 years since its last World Cup appearance, and had yet to score a goal in World Cup play. For the vast majority of today's match, it looked like that string would continue. But, feeling a connection to the team, I hung in and rooted for them.

The match, overall, was pretty ugly. A lot of the first half was marred by poor officiating, including a ludicrous missed call that resulted in a goal for Japan that shouldn't have counted. Australia, who'd been pushing fairly hard up to that point, seemed pretty deflated for some time afterward.

Another ugly sight was the display of overacting put on by the Japanese team. Falling to the turf and writhing in agony at the slightest bump, Japan's players took dive after dive, prompting a few unearned fouls to be called on the Aussies. One could cynically call this a savvy response to Australia's rough, physical style of play, but it's pretty pathetic to watch and it brought back memories of previous Cups where taking dives was more of a problem. Japan demonstrated some good ability and exciting strikes; to resort to (and get away with) their acting was pretty cheap.

The result was, for most of the match, a demoralized Aussie team that seemed to slow down a bit and lose their ability to make things happen near the goal. Japan seemed in control, and with the clock winding down to the last few minutes of the match, there didn't seem to be much reason for hope.

Then lighting struck. Three times.

From seemingly out of nowhere, Tim Cahill drove in a goal, then another one five minutes later. What seemed like a sure loss, then a damned lucky escape with a draw, suddenly became a victory. Then John Aliosi knocked in the Socceroos' third goal in 8 minutes, and the ending officially became astounding. Good on ya, mates!

Next up for the Australians is Brazil, who will probably defeat them, but if they can beat or tie Croatia, they have a very real chance of advancing out of the first stage. I've got my fingers crossed.

Czech Republic 3, U.S.A. 0
Oh, dear. Oh, my. Ouch.

Not much more can be said about what was a thoroughly disastrous match for the U.S. team. I was pretty excited about their chances going in, and was looking forward to their very athletic team playing a tough match against the somewhat injury-hobbled Czechs.

But five minutes into the match, it was over. Before the match, much had been made of the matchup between towering Czech striker Jan Koller and almost-as-big U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu. But that debate ended with a thud as Koller slipped right by Onyewu and Eddie Pope to head in a goal before the U.S. had even gotten started.

The U.S. never seemed to recover after that. Tomas Rosicky added two more goals for the Czechs, one coming off another misstep by Onyewu, who cleared a Czech goal shot right back into play, setting up Rosicky's blast.

The score doesn't really convey how thoroughly the U.S. team was clobbered. They were beaten in every phase of the game, for the whole game. The powerful Czech team was like a great curtain sweeping back and forth across the field, their defense dragging the Americans away from the goal, their offense leaving the Americans chasing after them. They choked off the midfield, suffocated the U.S. attack, and broke up the sluggish U.S. defense.

The one bright spot I could see was the quick, dynamic play of U.S. substitute Eddie Johnson, who created some nice scoring chances and added needed energy late in the match. But for the most part, the U.S. team was humbled. Stars Landon Donovan and Brian McBride were shut down, and keeper Kasey Keller and midfielder DaMarcus Beasley were both uninspired or worse.

So, with all that, what hope is there for the U.S. team? Lucky for them, they lost to the best team in their group, so this is not such an unexpected result. Unluckily, they're facing powerful Italy next. They still have a chance to advance if they can at least tie Italy, but realistically, their chances in this tournament come down to one simple goal: they must beat Italy. And, most likely, defeat Ghana as well, because losing 3-0 today doesn't set them up well for a tiebreaker based on goals scored. Both of those victories are possible--the U.S. is athletic, healthy, and deep with talent. But they're in disarray right now, and we'll find out on Saturday if they can turn this thing around.

As for the Czechs, theirs was hands-down the best performance I've seen yet in the tournament. If they can stay healthy, they look like serious contenders for the final.

Labels: Sport

Well, it's that time again, my favorite month of sports--the World Cup.

This'll be the fourth one I've watched--I first got hooked when it was played in the U.S., when I was living below that Brazilian family in '94. I watched part of the '98 tourny in France from a couch in Mississippi. I still remember seeing the tough German defense fall before Brazil in '02, and now this. I'll be spending an entirely unreasonable amount of time following matches over the next month until the final on July 9.

Here are my thoughts on a few highlights from the first weekend of play.

Germany 4, Costa Rica 2
Of all the teams I've seen this weekend, Germany's impressed me the most. Perhaps stung by their loss to super-offensive Brazil in the last Cup, this new team was all aggressive offense, moving fast and pushing the ball hard. While they don't have the individual ball-handling skills of a South American team, collectively they're very effective, working cooperatively to create a lot of great angles and set up strikes.

Costa Rica didn't look so good, and the fact that they scored two goals shows the potential weakness of this German team--a sometimes-loose defensive back line. Their new keeper didn't distinguish himself, and a dangerous offense-based team like Brazil or Argentina could pull their new game style apart if the German midfield would have to pull back to help defend. How strongly they handle Poland later this week will be telling.

Argentina 2, Ivory Coast 1
This was a really interesting match--two very colorful teams who are both quite dangerous. I was very impressed by Ivory Coast--they displayed some of the best movement I've seen yet, pushing the ball across the field and creating some great scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, that's where they broke down--their shots on goal were haphazard, off-target, and generally unfocused and uncoordinated. Time and again they'd push right through the Argentines and then send a shot harmlessly wide.

Argentina, on the other hand, played almost stereotypical South American soccer--a style of play that almost seems lazy or passive, but which strikes like lightning at surprise moments. They seemed sluggish compared to Ivory Coast for a lot of the match, and had the ball for a lot less of the time, but their setup kicks and goal shots were scarily hard, fast, and on-target. They displayed some overall and defensive weakness in this match, but their offense will make them a real threat against anyone.

Mexico 3, Iran 1
Another interesting, dynamic match. These two teams seem to have a pretty similar style of play--tough, scrappy, physical, fighting for the ball and keeping each other on the run. In this case, Mexico was simply more aggressive and better organized near the goal, setting up some great goal shots. They seemed to have some problems effectively clearing out the ball after Iranian goal shots, and this could cause trouble if they don't tighten it up a bit. Iran looked workmanlike and not much more, but Mexico looked intense enough to be a potential threat into the later stages of the tournament.

The rest of this week should provide some terrific matches, including the debuts of the U.S., Brazil, Australia, France, and Italy--all potentially tough teams who I'll be intrigued to see.

Labels: Sport