By: Arthur Muhlenberg - Guest Author

For the so-called normal Flamengo fans, wearing our colors, packing the stands, and pushing the team forward and upward under any conditions was never an option. It's in our nature, all imprinted in our DNA. And far beyond genetic determinism, we believe with religious fervor that loving and always being wherever Flamengo is is our primary mission on Earth. Even though lately the earth, water, and fire have been punishing the Flamengo fans with extreme severity, rest assured that, even torn apart, the Flamengo fans this Thursday night will be all there for the Fla-Flu. Some in body, others in spirit, all in passion.

Flamengo was forged under intense pressure and at the scorching heat of its glory days, but it was tragedies that tempered us into what we are today. Since the sinking of the Pheruza, our first ship, we've tried to learn from them. And we haven't been able to. Gilberto Cardoso, Geraldo, Coutinho, and Figueiredo remain inexplicable, but they've been forming our second skin into an increasingly thicker shell. Sadly, we discovered last Friday that this shell is still not entirely invulnerable.

Artur da Távola taught that being a Flamengo fan is being human and being whole and strong in the capacity to desire. But being a Flamengo fan is also learning to rhyme love and pain in the same verse. As the 10 Meninos do Ninho are teaching in their final act. The 10 boys, the 10 martyrs, the now 10 avatars enthroned on the red and black Olympus. It was the violent absence of these 10 boys that revealed the extent of forces many never even suspected existed.

The strength that comes from solidarity, empathy, and the ability to put oneself in another's shoes. The strength that Flamengo has been receiving from all sides, from all its admirers, from all its rivals. From all those who realized that the Meninos do Ninho are not just those who left, but also those who remained. The Meninos do Ninho are all of us, all the boys, all the girls. Zulu culture has a word that explains the origin of this strength: Ubuntu – which means I am because we are. Flamengo today is Ubuntu from head to toe.

Solidarity isn't something to be thanked for; it's something to be celebrated. It's with this spirit that we'll fill Maracanã Stadium tonight. To honor our dead and sing loudly the names of our heroes. All of them, like security guard Benedito Ferreira and our heroines Daniele da Silva of General Services and Maria Cícera de Barros of the Laundry. All giants, all heroes. Flamengo is a wounded beast, but we'll celebrate life, celebrate solidarity, live football. And face Fluminense.

Facing Fluminense for me, for you, for our neighbors, for all the people of the nation. And for the Nest Boys. Who are no longer even people, they are angels.

Dedicated to Arthur Vinicius, Athila Paixão, Bernardo Pisetta, Christian Esmério, Gedson Santos, Jorge Eduardo, Pablo Henrique, Rykelmo de Souza Viana, Samuel Thomas and Vitor Isaiah.