Long Live Pele!

Dear Pele,

Thank you for introducing me to the beauty of football. That it isn’t all crash and possible injury.  That it can be graceful as a dance; and that the spirit behind the kick can be dancing too.  That each kick can be the giving of encouragement, astonishment, joy.  Love.  And that people can be made whole again by this expression of one-pointed offering of the best, the highest,  that one has to give.  Long live you, Pele, and long live the people of Brazil who were not afraid, in fact were ecstatic, to claim, adore, and see themselves, radiant and forever free, in you. ~aw