Beckham - because of the World Cup 2026

Really I have no interest at all in sports of any kind and antipathy towards a few - like American football which I find mindless aggression and destructive in the consquences to the players - CTE. But, the US is hosting the World Cup of Soccer and of all the sports, it seems to me one of the most athletic, diverse and least harmful to players or the earth. I say that about the earth because I never realized until I visited an abandoned golf course in Cape May which was returning back to nature, how much land is tortured and negatively transformed to make golf courses. I just didn't know.

Also, I don't comprehend the passion and obsession with getting a ball into a hole, or a net, or between two poles. I do understand the concept of sport as symbolic war, but that doesn't make me like it more. By the way, on that subject, anyone remember ROLLERBALL?

Back to Beckham, I had seen the documentary before, a few years back, and found it interesting so last night I decided to watch the four episodes again. This time the themes that stood out to me were: betrayal, exploitation, the pattern of women's trajectories being turned into comet trails behind a man's burning ball. This time I felt such empathy for David Beckham because his heart got broken in so many ways that were familiar to me, I felt him.

Betrayal - Two massive episodes of betrayal that David Beckham suffered, to me, were when Beckham had a slip of the leg and tripped up an Argentinian player who cunningly capitalized on Beckham's mistake and did a big fake fall which caused Beckham to be red carded out of the game. England lost in a deeply grudge filled match (because England had stolen the Faulkland Islands from Argentina) and the UK fams spent the next year spitton on Beckham's car, insulting him and his wife wherever they went, and spewing malice and hatred towards him, blaming him for the loss as though it were all on him to make the win or the loss, and anyhow - such deep passionate hatred towards a man who had been their hero? How they turned.

The second one was when he had an argument with his coach/team manager, Alex, whom he considered to be a father figure and whom he had revered and respected, and he used a profanity. Behind his back, Alex sold Beckham's contract out to another soccer team, Real Madrid, a good team, but not the team the Beckham had considered "family" - no one is your family but your actual family!

Victoria Beckham had been enjoying a huge star trip as a member of the Spice Girls rock and roll group. They had two giant successes of albums and made world tours to adoring fans. Now her romance with David Beckham didn't end the Spice Girls, the lead singer and song writer, Geri Holliwell ended the group for her own reasons. Plus two of the members had become pregnant (women's folly) More on their after life in a paragraph or two. But Posh Spice turned into a harried overburdened mother of four dragged from home to home, country to country, following her husband's suddenly erratic career. Myself, having been a mother of ONE without the blessing of family help, I can't imagine how hard it was for her to carry that burden: child care, constant packing and unpacking, all the arrangements of homes, schools, the emotional fallout from the children. No longer the admired star on the stage with thousands screaming her name and showering her with applause and financial success, she was now the mule burdened with the baggage and the ire of the dependents.

In the end, the thing I really empathized with was Beckham's physical decline. Already by 38, Beckham was feeling the disaster in his back, joints and muscles. He talked about rolling out of bed in the mornings stiff and in pain. Another sports movie I saw years ago Any Given Sunday about American Football, showed the players getting shots in their knees to quiet the pain so they could continue. We all know about the brain trauma and the many suicides from the pain and dementia they suffer. A recent UFC cage fighter declared public that he didn't care if he had to get brain damage in order to win the belt!

It all worked out okay because Beckham struggled through all his setbacks, disasters and heartbreaks and adapted to the new reality with grace and dignity - a good lesson for our fallen hero, Joe Biden, who didn't know when to quit.

The Spice Girls, too, moved on with new careers as solo artists, fashion designers, and entrepreneurs or married to wealth.

It isn't easy to quit a career for some though. It was easy for me to quit teaching when I had my time in for a pension. And I knew exactly when the time was right. It was when I discovered my high blood pressure and began to feel the possible explosion in my brain during the adrenalin rush of teaching or coping in the classroom, I knew it was time to get out or get a stroke! I have known other teachers, however, who didn't want to quit and couldn't imagine what else they would do. One teacher I knew had a stroke and died two weeks after his retirement. I had hobbies and interests. In fact, being interested may be my greatest gift.

I got so interested that tonight I plan to watch a documentary about Victoria Beckham.

And by the way, best modern series, fictional, about sports, good relationships and good coaching is Ted Lasso It was marvelously humane and interesting and funny and a great look at soccer from the locker room.

Happy Trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com