“Who are you supporting?”

Certainly where I live, it’s a pretty normal question at the moment. The answer isn’t always obvious, but for most people, the response comes almost instantly.

But for me, it’s a little like being asked, “Where are you from?”

That’s a little more complicated.

And now, for the first time ever, all of the places that have properly shaped me are playing in the World Cup. How cool is THAT?

South Africa, where I was born and where half of my dad’s family is from.
Canada, where I grew up.
England, where my mum and TIE Leadership are from.
Scotland, where the other half of my dad’s family is from.
And Brazil, the place that captured my heart, where I built my home and where my children are from.

How lucky am I to have so many places to call my own?

Of course, at some point, you have to choose who you’re cheering for overall.

And I think….it’s Brazil. 💛💚

But the thing I love most is what this question makes me reflect on.

In a world that so often asks us to pick sides, perhaps one of our greatest strengths as human beings is our ability to belong to more than one reality and more than one story.

To hold multiple identities, to carry different perspectives, to build bridges between different worlds.

It’s something I explore in chapter 5 of my book Return on Humanity, and something I spoke about with Jeppe Fischer-Mogensen yesterday when recording our podcast (coming out next month). How easily we split into us and them, and how much we lose, at dinner tables and in friendships, when we do.

Picking a team for the football is the fun version.

Staying curious about people who see the world nothing like ours takes real courage.

And that courage is where change begins.

So maybe the future depends less on deciding who is “us” and who is “them,” and more on making our definition of “us” a little bigger.

Food for thought…. ⚽️🇧🇷🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇿🇦