In Ecclesiastes 7:8, King of Israel and uber-wise man Solomon says:  “The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.”

I understand this snippet of wisdom. Oftentimes, I find I’m greatly relieved when a matter has ended … even if it was something I thoroughly enjoyed. (The latter consideration doesn’t apply when I’m talking FIFA World Cup.)

As to soccer, I’ve already provided (in a previous post) my thoughts on this recent celebration of the sport. I’m definitely not a fan. I don’t begrudge the rest of the world for their enthusiastic embrace of the sport. In fact, I’m greatly impressed by the stamina and athletic ability of the players. There’s no question they’re amazing athletes.

But to celebrate the ending of this matter, I offer below my poetic appreciation as related to today’s welcome curtain-fall on 24/7 soccer for another four years. Yes, I understand it wasn’t actually televised 24/7 and the games were spread over 32 days, but it seemed as though there was a 24/7 soccer conversation almost everywhere I went!

By employing the sonnet form, I fear I’ve done a disservice to poetry as a whole, but perhaps working in ballet as the metaphor will help in making my indiscretion more bearable … and excusable.