There we were, a very large group of enthusiastic hockey fans, patriots, friends, lovers and drunks completely enthralled in one present moment; a gold medal hockey game.
Thrilled with what was happening here I decided to take the position of the observer for a moment and was able to see an actual truth revealed, a duality between what was and wasn’t. It wasn’t the game or the energy of the group. It wasn’t the woman running around getting her Canadian t shirt autographed by everyone in the bar while she painted red maple leafs on their faces. It wasn’t the tall drunk guy standing next to me weaving side to side while clenching his libation tightly spouting hockey statistics in my right ear while I carefully listened to the real game in my left ear. It certainly wasn’t the guy who openly admitted with a roar that he was from the US and took a lot of ribbing but in the end was warmly embraced, made a pile of new friends and will be going home with one hell of a story as to where he was for the gold medal game. It wasn’t even the Japanese man that carefully removed his hat and stood proudly while the national anthem played. It was much more than this.
It was the fact that millions of people across many nations were brought together with a single focus: a hockey game!
What amazed me the most about this gathering was that this group was living in a present moment of awareness displaying so much outward use of energy and for a sustained period of time which spawned a second question; if we can devote this kind of energy and focus to a hockey game, what could we do as a collective to solve some of the bigger pressing issues of our society? We could really score with children’s poverty or taking the time to cook a nutritious meal for the senior that lives next door. If everyone at the pub donated the time and/or money that they spent that day on society issues once a year change would evolve faster than at the present rate.
My presence that day was validated by the collective of the human spirit. It moved me and at times I felt euphoric as screams of joy followed by hugs all around came in waves as the score mounted. We all felt safe in the sacred space we shared because we allowed ourselves to be opened up and vulnerable. Sex, race, gender, age; it all didn’t matter because at the end of the day we all knew each other by face. ~ CY
