the power of the game

I think I have been living in a bubble my whole life.
Yesterday I went to the mall in Richmond to collect my watch; it had been in for repair. It was about 2pm and the first day of the school holidays.
I was walking casually around, just looking at stuff and taking in the strange energy that usually resides in such places; where many people mingle and mix unknowingly, and mostly unwantingly in the true sense of contact.
From around the corner came a thunderous multi-voiced roar, and what followed was equally bewildering and altogether intriguing. People who had been strolling without a care only seconds before, erupted into a gallop of panicked proportions, sprinting for what appeared to be their lives and disappearing on mass to somewhere around the corner, though in the direction of the thunderous roar.
I too quickened my pace, although I felt no need to sprint, I was merely interested to know the cause for all that commotion. And there is was.....
A throng of perhaps 150+ people, huddled around half a dozen large TV sets facing out from and around a sports store. It was one of those moments that I regret not having my camera, for there was every visible race, gender and age represented there. Asians sitting among caucasians cheering for Italy together; others booing Italy in light-hearted mirth; muslims in the hajib jumping up and down while recounting the action over a cell phone; Punjabi teenagers punching the air; old men sitting transfixed, wide eyed, beaming; others wandering past with confused looks of interested curiosity, stopping to watch the jubilation on every face rather than the televised game, like I was. Then the crowd exploded into a deafening fever as Italy scored its second goal in as many minutes, to claim victory and its place in the World Cup final.
Alex was a bit shaken by the noise and wanted to leave immediately. He didn't understand what was going on, but I picked him up and showed him the TV and the soccer and explained the situation.
I still don't think he really understood why so many people were enthused by a game of soccer on the TV. Or why this game in particular brought so many together, captured their imaginations and interest on this day. I had to wonder at that myself, but if a simple game of soccer being played thousands of miles away between two teams, neither of them offering local representation, can have such a drawing and bonding effect of all those around them, then maybe the World Cup should be an annual event - why do we have to wait four years for such promising scenes as these - and I am not referring to the soccer.