World Cup.

Timing is perfect. I have been home for a year now and guess what corresponds perfectly with this momentous time to refresh my burning love for my Terra Amada... the World Cup! It has been 4 years since the last, and I have forgotten how much I have always liked the World Cup (call it blasphemous, but probably more than the Olympics). The 2006 World Cup was right after I graduated high school and Bennett and I, and sometimes some of our other friends, watched almost all the games. There are more countries that belong to to FIFA than belong to the UN... so the World Cup really is the biggest coming together of the entire planet. The teams are all driven by so much passion and intensity, playing the same game, on the same fields, under the same rules, and yet there is so much individuality and uniqueness. Some players catch our attention. So teams do. I can remember from a young age always being enthralled by the show-stopping, game-defining Seleção Brasileira, or Brazilian National Team.

Imagine how much more this team captivates me now that my heart is yellow and green. They are my team. For decades Brazil has defined the flair and creativity in the world of football. It is pretty hard to describe what football means to the Brazilian people if you haven't ever been there. Yeah, sure people all like sports... but to them it is more. Imagine all the passion that Americans have for their sports... like College (American) football, the NBA, Nascar, the X-Games... and now add all the passion for the arts... like Broadway plays, and bands... and add all the passion that people have for video games, and hiking, and any other type of entertainment you can imagine. Now add the strength of family traditions and cultural identity and history. Seems like a lot of human emotion? That is still not close to entirely capturing the way football flows through the veins of the Brazilian people. The English invented it, but they (the Brazilian people) perfected it. They were born for it.

I just watched my first World Cup game this year. Brazil vs Portugal. It was a draw... and they both advance past group play. As I watched, although in terms of pure soccer entertainment it was average, I was taken away with joy. I looked at those beautiful yellow jerseys and I thought about the hundreds of millions of my brothers and sisters in South America who were watching that game, that team, that flag, and I felt such a tug at my heart. I miss them. I love them. I thought of Bennett there right now. I thought of everyone wearing their jerseys around (most people can't afford cars and computers, and a lot can't even afford good shoes or balanced diets, but everyone has a yellow Selection jersey... everyone).

The 2014 World Cup will be in Brazil. I am going. The Selection Team trains in a town called Teresopolis, just outside of Rio de Janeiro. The final game will be played in the Maracana stadium, South America's biggest, which is located right next to the first area I served in. Excited? You bet. Meu coração é verde e amarelo!