Soccer And Waiting

“Dude, This Is A Gas Station”

Andrew Sullivan | The Weekly | 26th June 2026

The FIFA World Cup in America has provided an “unexpected, fresh burst of globalised joy”. “We forget too easily the multicultural miracle we have already achieved in this quarter of a millennium, and the loving, generous, bountiful culture that is still America at its core. If it takes a soccer tournament rather than a choreographed 250th Anniversary celebration to remind us of that, so be it” (1,500 words)

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When The Waiting Is Over

Heather Abel | Oldster | 29th June 2026

On longing before smartphones. “The place I’ve lived that I remember most wistfully is a place where I was always waiting. In the cabin I rented, I ate chickpeas from a can. There were no lights outside, no houses, just the mesa and a mountain. When I think about that time, I wonder how I bore such silence. No signals came toward me from the world, no news, no chatter. That person is a stranger to me now” (2,400 words)