Universal language

Today I walked downstairs to the sounds of "Telemundo" on our TV. Now, I must say, my husband and I are not diverse enough to know Spanish, and Telemundo does not typically make appearances on our TV screen. I was curious until I walked around the corner and saw what was actually on the screen:

The World Cup - Brazil vs. France

You must understand that my husband is a sports nut. Nut? Oh, no, that's not really the right word. It's more like a lifestyle. ESPN sponsors us - "Tonight, Stuart Scott hosts: 'Dinner with the Hills' on ESPN." (Stuart Scott is a name I shouldn't know.) My grandparents gave him a subscription to Sports Illustrated for his birthday, and he said, "It's the best present I've ever gotten." (Does a wedding ring count as a present?) I have walked in to find him watching Female Trick-Shot Pool on ESPN2. (He has been following Allison whats-her-name for a few years now - evidently she's the Tiger Woods of Female Trick-Shot Pool.)

So, when Brazil (the favored team to win the World Cup) plays France, and none of his regular channels carry it, so what? It's only a slight problem that he doesn't understand what the announcers are saying - when they replay a foul, for instance, he might not understand the commentary about it, but he knows it was a foul. And after a player took a ball to his sensitive area and landed on the ground in pain, one commentator said, "Ouch" - no need to translate that.

I tend to give him a hard time about this, but really, I admire his dedication to something. It is amazing how sports can be a universal language. For example, when we were watching the NBA draft this week, after JJ was picked, we heard a shout of excitement from our teenage neighbors (whom we truly don't have anything in common with!) And today, around the world, people are glued to their media outlets, watching grown men kick a ball. It makes me kinda glad that it's on, in Spanish, at our house. In a way, it links me to the world - even if I don't understand the words.