Der Kapitän

Massively underrated, a quiet leader, touted by Pep Guardiola as "one of the most intelligent players" he'd ever come across with (maybe biased as Bayern's coach, but speaks volume considering the players he had played with and coached). 

Interestingly, before this WC, I had the urge of spending some extra bucks on a #16 jersey - probably because as we all knew, this was possibly the last chance Lahm (and Schweinsteiger) would have to make a shot at an international trophy in their careers. Also, as superstitious a sports fan as I am, buying Team Canada's 2010 Olympics sweater ended up good fortune, so why not try it again. To add on another personal connection: I am a similar small figure as the "Magic Dwarf", playing same positions as fullback and defensive midfield - he easily became one of my role models (along with Schweini - I was wearing #16 inside and #7 outside for the final). Now, I can proudly/luckily say I did it. 

It was a shocking decision for the world. I was really hoping the duo could finish the circle and bow out with a Euro in 2016. But, as they say, you never know... Better to seize the moment while you have it.

Philipp Lahm, my captain, you will be dearly missed!

Fußballgott

This was the last play in Sunday’s World Cup final: Bastian Schweisteiger jumped high up, headed the ball out of danger, and got knocked down by an Argentina player. The referee called a foul and free kick for Germany first. Basti mumbled something in his mouth, Toni Kroos hugged his vice captain’s head, seemingly telling him “We got the free kick, I think this is it…” Then, the referee blew the final whistle. Kroos and Lahm dropped to their knees; Thomas Müller fist pumped; Schweini? He was like a battered warrior at the end of a war, struggled to get up and relish the victory.

At the final whistle of the WC final

It was a war for him: minutes before the final started, Schweinsteiger learned that his midfield partner Sami Khedira was injured in the warm-up. Not too long into the game, Khedira’s replacement, Christoph Kramer, had to be subbed off due to a concussion. With his comrades down and out, Basti had to not only take care of the best player in the world but also command the entire defensive midfield for Germany in front of the back four (we all know Özil or Kroos can’t track players well). Like all great leaders do, he stepped up and lived up to the message inscribed on his boots – “The Chosen One”. He tirelessly ran up and down the field (15.3km in total), dictated the pitch box-to-box with 90% passing completion, and hustled his teammates when everyone’s physical condition was stretched to the limit. He was knocked down time after time, his knees hyper-extended/sprained, his legs cramped. About 10 minutes before it all ended when there was still no winner in this match, Sergio Agüero clawed his face and cut under his right eye open. Blood streaking down his face, he did not waste time complaining – he knew they wouldn’t allow him to continue playing with an open wound – he needed a quick fix because his team couldn’t afford playing with one-man short for too long at this critical stage of the match. Coach Jogi Löw had Kevin Großkreutz ready on the sideline, but there was no way Schweinsteiger was going to let anyone take over for him at this pinnacle moment of his career – he had been this close many times so he knew how it hurt without finishing, he would for sure be one of the penalty takers if the match went there, he knew his body wasn’t going to get any younger – it was now or never for him. The medical staff stitched up his face and #7 stood up again, howling to get back into the match. That was the 111th minutes of the World Cup final, 77 seconds later, Mario Götze put the ball into the back of Argentina’s net with a sublime finish, and history was written.

Inscribed on Schweinsteiger's boots in the WC final: "the chosen one"

Too much emotion in this picture... Those 3 knew what it took to get here

While the world saw the childish smile from the 22-year-old who lifted an entire nation, it was the tears in Schweini’s (and Lahm’s and Klose’s) eyes that brought them here. Started his career as an attacking midfielder, Schweinsteiger was seen as a flashy player not down to earth. It took a genius coach, Luis van Gaal, to see more in this young kid and developed him into a holding midfielder. The party boy image was long gone, and a true leader was born. Nevertheless, his career path was not easy. On the international stage, he was close but had no trophy to show in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 – he took those defeats harder each time. What got even worse was in 2012, when he missed that final penalty in front of his own 70,000 Bayern München fans at Allianz Arena and handed the Champions League final to Chelsea – 3 runner-ups in one season… Many would never come back from that low again, but not Bastian Schweinsteiger. He may not be the most skillful player, he may not have the slickest movement, or the fastest pace; but he has the strongest willpower – a true German virtue that always makes them winners. He and Bayern completed the incredible treble in 2013. The 2013-14 season was not a smooth sailing for him, just when he needed it to prepare for the World Cup. Multiple ankle injuries, knee problems at the end of the season and close to the tournament, many pundits deemed that he had passed his prime and should be a peripheral figure on this Die Nationalmannschaft. Jogi Löw sacrificed his vice captain on the bench to start the tournament – one thing was to give him more time to recover from those injuries, the other was to have a chance to test out a new system without relenting his team’s harmony (which he desperately needed to have any chance to go far in this tournament) because he knew Schweinsteiger would not make a fuss about the benching. As expected, Schweini did not say a word about it, and partied with the lads after the 4-0 thump of Portugal. However, when the team was in a chaotic moment trailing Ghana 1-2 in the second half of the second game, he (and Klose) came on as a saviour – he only needed 15 minutes to prove that this was still his team. On Sunday, he fought with his heart and soul in a game of his life. The rest was history.

After standing up from that final knock on the final whistle, Basti let all his emotions out. Why not?! He had given his all, there was nothing left to play. He was leading his team up the stairs to raise the World Cup. He is Weltmeister.

He is the Fußballgott.

A Dollar and A Suitcase

I always like knowing the background stories of a musician writing a song — it makes me understand and appreciate the song better. Recently, I caught this one on the CBC Vinyl Cafe and it hit me deep. 

In introducing this song, Ann said her grandmother immigrated from the Netherlands to Canada shortly after the Second World War and had a difficult life; so she developed a tough personality and had very little tolerance for people who are not tough. Her mother is a tough woman as well, but cries often. When her mother left home for university for the first time, Ann’s grandmother said to her mother: “If you don’t cry when you leave, I’ll give you a dollar.” Her mother tried really hard not to cry when they were saying goodbye and managed to make to her car without crying. However, as she was driving away, she started to cry. Then when she reached into her pocket for some Kleenex, there in her pocket was a dollar bill. In remembering this story, she wrote this song for her Oma.

From the BCCA 2012 Conference

“The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.” - Francis W. Peabody
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” - Helen Keller
“Education can sometimes educated the heart out.”
“I lost another battle, but the war is not over.”

Eva Grayzel, an oral cancer survivor as the keynote speaker for the conference, ended her emotional speech with this folklore:

There once was this good guy who did all the nice things in his life helping others. When he reached his time, he was given the choice of ending up above, or down below. He wanted to check out both places before making his decision. Over down below, he saw a big bowl of soup in the middle, all the people there were sitting around far away from the bowl and each had a very long spoon in their hands reaching the bowl. However, all of them looked frail, terrible, and suffering. Then he went up above, it was almost the same as he saw down below - a big bowl of soup in the middle, people sitting around far away from the bowl and each had a very long spoon in their hands. But the people there were happy, healthy, and jubilant. He wondered why... Then he noticed something different: the people down below all tried to get the soup with their long spoon to their own mouths, but the spoon was so long that by the time the soup reached close to them, it was all gone; the people up above did not try that, they simply scooped the soup out of the bowl and fed each other. When he was given the choice of where to go, you know what decision he made... 

Make a difference!

"Remembering today, and everyday."

Every year, the Remembrance Day services all look the same; but I want to be there, because they are also different, in small ways. No matter where I stand in the crowd, close or far from the cenotaph, I felt I was there -- like in a war. I saw people holding portraits of young men/women in front of their chests, I saw big man in Army uniforms weep, I saw veterans in wheelchairs in the cold rain -- just to be there. Today, the three men in front of me gave each other a pad on the back after the moment of silence, while fighting back emotions on their faces, in tears, and at the bottom of their hearts... Here is the poem from the Vancouver service today 11-11-2011:

THE WAY

by Hannah Naomi Williams

How dark the way is to me

I stumble, fall, grope and mutter

The sky above laughs at me

Birds peck, chirp, screech and whistle

Distant sounds to my ears

How dark my memories are to me

Of home, fire, warmth and faces

All whispering to me

Come back, come home return

But I cannot reach them where they are

How dark the land is to me

The earth is dark and cold beneath me

Frosty, unknown, foreign soil

My own country of trees and lakes

Far buried in my mind

How dark this pain is to me

It aches and overtakes my consciousness

Blood and thunder are well known

The Stench of rotting, life in death

When it’s quiet my ears still ring

How dark the fighting is to me

Courage has evaded me

I have no anger left for my enemies

I aim my gun in hope of life

But death is all that finds me

How dark the way is to me

I press on, my heart straining

I still live a miracle

Every breath is precious

So I wait and dream and pray for life

And this is the Vinyl Cafe Remembrance Day edition this year.

Crazy Ones

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” -- Steve Jobs & Apple

“Sometimes they were really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas; or, quiet simple ones, which in their subtlety, their detail, they were utterly profound. Just as Steve loved ideas and loved making stuff, he treated the process of creativity with a rare and wonderful reverence. He, better than anyone, understood the wild ideas ultimately can be so powerful - they began as fragile, barely-formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished.” -- Jony Ive, talking about ideas in his tribute to Steve Jobs.

Will This Be The Day

Before Game 1 of this Final series, Ron MacLean was on ice level, one knee down. He talked about the quiet content guys choking in the corner celebrating after winning, soaking in all the emotions (like Dirk Nowitzki yesterday after winning his first NBA Championship.) He talked about how bad all of them want the ring that Glenn Healy and Craig Simpson have, not many others.

"In this life, we learn by example far better than we learn by words. And the learning by example runs deep. It's just a game. But you play it. Oh, you play it."

Best Sign from Game 5

Quotes from 50-Hour Wilderness First Aid Course

“Legally, you meet the standards. Ideally, you exceed the standards.”

“Pain never kills.”

“An expert is someone who made all the mistakes in the book, and learned a lesson from each of them.”

“It doesn’t matter what you know. What matters is the decision you make.”

“When something (bad) happens in the mountain, have a smoke.” -- German/Austrian

“Building an arm splint the fastest is not the best first aid. Assessment first!”

“How’s the pain, on a 1 to 10 scale, on your broken leg?”
“About 2. I’ve given birth to a couple of children.”

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting." - Charles Bukowski