There is an ancient paradox called the "Ship of Theseus"; Theseus, a Greek hero, was traveling on a ship; one by one, as the ship's planks were decaying, they were then thrown abroad and replaced. At the end of the journey, every single plank was replaced. Is it still the same ship?

For centuries, philosophers have wrestled with this problem, but we do not care about its resolution regarding the ship or any of its other variations, except for the following one. Doesn't Metro seem like the Ship of Theseus, with planks... er, players replaced one by one, leaving the team in constant flux? The only difference is, the ship came back to Athens, where the Metro journey is seemingly still going forward.

If you look at the Metro roster right now, you will see just 11 players who were with the team at the end of last season, and with rumors surrounding Amado Guevara, Eddie Gaven, and Mike Magee, that number can dwindle even further. But this is nothing new to us Metro fans; even the relative stability the last three years under Bob Bradley saw its portion of turnover. Previous regimes were as trigger-happy to swap planks as the current one. At the end of last season, Jason Hernandez became the 162nd player to play a meaningful game for Metro. Hernandez is already gone, and that number is not likely to stay at 162 much longer, for the number of new planks on the current Metro roster is more than that of returning ones.

162 players in ten seasons makes the math simple: an average of 16 new players every year, 16 new planks as old planks are tossed away, failing to achieve their destination, as we, the fans, keep on holding hope that the new planks are stronger, will hold the Metro ship together longer, will finally push it forward to get to that championship harbor. For us, for those who are left, it is still the same ship.

Too many metaphors.

And of course, as we see our favorite players shipped out to be replaced with new ones, who then become our favorites, as we see Clint Mathis and Mike Petke as teammates -- in Colorado, as we see Tim Howard manning the nets in the Champions League and Paul Grafer in the USL, we hold the memories close to our heart, and try to move forward, with Chris Henderson and Peter Canero, with Marvell Wynne and Josmer Altidore. For even after ten horrid years, there's still hope.

That hope is called Metro.