The Day That Was

"I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

- Invictus by William Ernest Henley

The daily grind of the everyday hustle and bustle, or even the dreadfully dull, can become redundant and tiresome. From a bird's eye view, we must appear to be ants among smaller ants. We run this way and that. We go to work and we come home from work. We eat at the same places for lunch. We all answer our phones at work the same way and we all try to do the jobs we are given in the hopes that we make our money to enjoy the weekends or the free time that we do have.

Through all of the hard work and living the lives we lead, we are given our breaks from stress. We are given time to leave it all behind. It can be spent with family and friends. It can be alone on a porch with a cold beer and the sounds of summer. It can reward you with clarity and direction. It can be a time for you to just breathe. It is the dessert of life.

And sometimes, it comes with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

While mulling through some paperwork and dealing with the telephone this morning at work, I navigated my way to the United States versus Algeria soccer match at the World Cup. The anticipation for this match had strangled me right up until the opening kick and I was not to miss the event. I had the match on with no speaker volume in a little window on the corner of my computer and tried to check in every now and then.

The U.S. needed victory bad for many reasons. They needed to score one more goal than the desert foxes from Algeria to ensure a birth in the 16 team tournament that awaited the victor. A loss here would send the Americans packing up their bags to head home to a plethora of media badgering and ignorant folks who would just dog soccer again. A loss would have ended any real shot at the growth of soccer for a very long time.

As the game drew close to the finish, the score was still tied at 0-0 and I could feel myself deflate as a tie would do us no good. When an assistant referee posted four minutes of extra time, I could already hear the sports talk old-timers pointing their fingers and calling soccer a non-issue.

Then, in a blink of an eye, Landon Donovan caught a rebounded shot off goal and slammed home a goal that shattered the new century with the alarm of a new era. By this time, I had stopped all work, jumped out of my seat and cheered. My twitter feed erupted in a fury of nationalism that I had not seen in a very long time. The United States went on to win the game 1-0 and secured themselves in the tournament, playing Saturday against Ghana.

The whipped cream can go on top, thanks.

After the rest of the day at work and after watching Invictus, I put on the Phillies game against the Indians with the Phillies down a run. Chase Utley had just protected the one run deficit with a great double play in the top of the 9th as the Phils came up to bat. With Valdez on second base, Jimmy Rollins stepped to the plate. Hitless since coming back from an injury that had sidelined him most of the year he took the count to 1-1 as Kerry Wood drew in and delivered a meatball that Rollins delivered to the right field seats. That's right, the Phillies won in dramatic, walk-off fashion 7-6.

Days like this keep people going. Today is an amazing example of living life to enjoy life. It was a reason to deal with all the peripheral things that really don't matter in the end. Sport is an amazing thing that wraps your soul in intrigue and wonder. Some days are just better than others. Some days you just have to stand and applaud even if you are the only one in the room. Some days, sport applauds your efforts.

I think I'll have two cherries on top, please.