We suffered the excruciating loss of our dearest friend, Joe Matthews, age 92, who silently slipped into eternity while aqua jogging on April 13. We have endured the wake, and Funeral Mass, and two weeks of mourning. During these two weeks, we have had a stream of consciousness depicting the two Joes whom we love dearly. We say two Joe’s, because one Joe is the Joe of memory, who existed in time, in the body. The other Joe is the eternal Joe who exists and always existed, and always will exist in God, in whom we live and move and have our being. But right now, at this moment in time, an image of Joe in his body is haunting me as ‘Ted Lasso’ the American soccer coach who goes to England, and has captivated a worldwide audience because of his charismatic presence as a humble, humorous, forgiving guy in contrast to the egotistic selfish seekers who surround him.
There has been a surge of interest in the Ted Lasso series on Apple by religious writers. One article is in the National Catholic Reporter (April 27, 2023) by Karen Eifler, “Why religion needs ‘Ted Lasso’ ” She talks about this humble television show which can help us learn a thing or two about who or what God is. It is full of lessons on Personhood, humility, leadership, forgiveness, and listening to children. Eifler even quotes Pope Francis in Fratelli tutti, “Goodness is never weak but rather, shows its strength by refusing to take revenge. Those who truly forgive do not forget. Instead, they choose to not yield to the same destructive force that caused them so much suffering. They break the vicious circle; they halt the advance of the forces of destruction.” (This is quintessential Franciscan spirituality that Joe talked about all the time.)
Joe Matthews was famous in this part of Florida for making people feel good about themselves: the seniors at “Stretch and Tone” three times a week. The servers and checkout personnel at Publix, BJ’s, Costco, Subway Sandwiches, the Silver Dollar Golf Course and Clubhouse, the Senior Tennis and Pickle Ball Group at Westchase. They and many others were very lucky people who were greeted by name, and with an encouraging quip by Joe Matthews. Sounds a lot like Ted Lasso.
Then, today, in the New York Times, I find another article on “Ted Lasso” by Tish Harrison Warren, titled: ” A TV Show That Uses Humor to Call Us Back to Humility.”
In this inspiring article, the Reverend Warren continues the salute to the Lasso Show and points out candidly how Lasso models the humility, forgiveness, and, plainly, LOVE that draws so many worldwide to watch, in the midst of the sadness and suffering, and contention in almost every country. When I read this, I was struck by the humility of Joe Matthews that was revealed in his Obituary. Nobody but his family knew that he had spent thirty years running a program for the homeless, especially aids victims, in New York City. The Mayor of New York attended his retirement celebration, he was so honored and loved by the more than 250 people that he supervised. Nobody knew Joe was an accomplished painter, much less that he had run four marathons and 75,000 miles, i.e., around the world three times. Every ounce of Joe’s humility was spent on rewarding others and not himself. And we all are the beneficiaries.
Back to Ted Lasso in Rev. Warren’s article:
“Lasso’s great humility, again and again, makes him a wellspring of transformation and redemption. He disarms people.
As Dostoyevsky sketched out the main character of “The Idiot,” Prince Myshkin, perhaps the most famous holy fool in literature, he wrote: “His way of looking at the world: He forgives everything, sees reasons for everything, does not recognize that any sin is unforgivable.”
| There is a kind of magic at work in Ted Lasso’s life. When everyone else seems to be carried along by the powerful riptides of ambition, vanity, fame, jadedness and contempt, it startles us when someone swims upstream against the current. The Catholic social activist Dorothy Day ends her memoir “The Long Loneliness” with one of my favorite lines: “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”In a time when our culture is marked by outrage, division and cynicism, Ted Lasso calls us back to humility. He asks us to lighten up a little, to not take ourselves too seriously. In doing so, he reminds everyone he encounters — including us watching at home — of our shared humanity. We are all, in the end, not winners or losers, successes or failures, pure heroes or villains, but people who long to be known, loved and delighted in. This is the gift of Ted Lasso. He shows us what’s possible when we give up winning — soccer games, power grabs, professional success, culture wars or online fights — and, however foolish it may be, choose to root for the people all around us. How miraculous that we have been gifted by a real life Ted Lasso who has been our closest friend for years on end. And now Joe Matthews is available to us 24/7 as the eternal Joe, not of memory, but of present presence. Amen. |
Sal Umana 