No satisfaction

Mick wasn’t alone.

Many ” ain’t get no satisfaction” either, except for the WC Semi-finalists.

Argentina, Britain, Italy, Brazil. We are talking about “brands” here.

Maybe Hyundai, McDonald, Adidas etc.. are the real winners.

Or at least, their brands are getting “emotional” seeing grown-up men break down and cry.

We crash when our (rosy) expectations and (harsh) reality collide.

The grass in the stadium will be kept green long after championship dreams have died.

The team from Ghana, for instance, are now taking a few tips of survival from Nelson Mandela.

OK, you get a calendar and a pen. Then, cross out the days spent. Keep refreshing your mental page.

Never never give up hope.

If I were an African kid, I would see how my heroes handle their blunder.

I keep watching the semi-finalists, to see the benchmark they set and learn something from them:

– are they playing unselfishly (pass the ball even when they could strike)

– how are they reacting to yellow cards

– will they be well-received back home e.g. France, Ghana etc…

No one invested more of their time and energy than the players themselves.

And the stakes are enormously high.

Clinton and Mick showed up for the games too.

But it costs them only some celebrity capital (Paris Hilton paid more with her arrest).

The injured pride is hard to heal.

I saw you cry on TV.

Yes, I did.

You should have seen tears in my heart (new lyrics for Eric Clapton).

World Cup taught me there are always new arrangement, new world order.

And that winners and losers come and go. A chance to try, that’s all we got.

It’s all the more fitting that it is Fourth of July. A celebration of “inalienable right” of each person, you and me.

A friend sent a video clip of Eric Clapton’s “Change the world” on facebook. Maybe after getting no satisfaction,

with “tears in heaven”, our DJ can put on “change the world”, to motivate us. Self-pity is a vicious cycle.

It’s spiraling down and you ain’t get no satisfaction, no matter what team you root for. Mick can tell you that well,

in so many words.