The sport I wish I loved

Maggie says:
World Cup fever is on. On Saturday, I got a call from a dear friend on a street corner in Mexico City with soccer chants filling the air around him and a description of the city scene as "soccer mania, just like it should be." Later that night, the TVs behind our table at the bar kept turning everyone's attention away from the conversation at hand. Hard to focus when there's a great game going on across someone's shoulder. Well, okay, and when there's a particularly cute Ivory Coast player featured, as a companion rightfully pointed out.

For me, soccer is a somewhat distant thing. I appreciate the people power; I love the international politics; I love the crowds and the cheering; I love how populist it all seems. But I just don't know it the way many of my friends do. I see their inspiration, but for me, it just hasn't struck home yet.

Yesterday soccer started striking home. Of course, through reading, not actually watching soccer. (Nerdnerdnerd...) I picked up the latest copy of National Geographic - which had been neglected along with all my other mail - and was completely charmed by the cover story: Why the World Loves Soccer. The essays included inside - along with gorgeous photos - are really wonderful.

If you're already hooked, read what other rabid fans have to say. And if, like me, you want to be hooked but aren't quite there yet, start digging in now.

Soon, I will know this World Cup obsession. I can feel it.