Expanding The Culture Barrier! #1: Larry Bird

In honor of my global readership, I'm inaugurating a new recurring post feature called "Expanding the Culture Barrier!". Each EtCB post will take some crazy little Americanism that we all so arrogantly presume to be universally known, and BLOW IT WIDE OPEN so that it's understandable to all! It's about time I tried a little harder to cut through this chummy insularity of mine.

I'm going to pick things that highlight the little differences between us, or as in today's post, I'm going to pick a historical personage who can be used to illustrate a bit more about the wider world of differences that in some way, unite us.

"Larry Bird"

Larry Bird is this American guy who used to be famous for playing what is basically an American variant of Soccer - the only differences being that you have to dribble the ball with your hands instead of your feet, you pitch the ball through the air instead of kicking it along the ground, and the goal is much higher off the ground and much smaller (only a little bigger than the ball itself!). And there's no goalie. In fact, goaltending is illegal. They will call a foul on you for that!

They call the whole thing "basketball," owing to a complicated web of trademark reasons, I believe.

Now at first you might think, he must have been so famous because he must have been the only guy playing this crazy version of Soccer! And that's why he was famous! Right? Because who else would do it? Why - when you can kick it with your toes and go for a big gigantic basket, why would you try to kick with your fingers and go for a tiny little one instead? And why call it "two" or "three" "points" when (let's be honest) you only made one "goal"?

I admit it does seem crazy, but the fact is: no. He wasn't the only one doing it. There were tons of other people doing it, and a lot of them were famous too, at least on a regional level. But he was considered something special because of a skin disorder he had, that he triumphed over to achieve greatness in his field. We here in America love a story like that! "Gawky Albino Triumphs In Weird Soccer Variant." That's the sort of headline we love to see, the sort of story we really like to root for! We eat it up. I was going to say we like to "root for the little guy," but no really, Larry Bird was pretty freakishly tall. So that's a bad fit.

So! That was Expanding The Culture Barrier! #1: "Larry Bird". And now you know all about that guy! I was going to start with Chuck Taylor, but I think the shoes beat me to it on that one.

But in any case, I hope you all learned a little something larger, besides. Especially those of you abroad (but really, even my Stateside readers can always benefit from a little history lesson!). Because it's the little details, that can teach us so much about the big picture. And it's the little stories - sometimes, just one little story about one big guy and his crazy dream to play hand-soccer with a crazy orange ball - that can teach us so much about the big story that every one of us writes, every day. Whether in English, or in our own crazy little language, whatever it may be.