Pride (HOCKEY!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!)
I love this.
I just got back from 3 hours of running around downtown Montreal, making my way up and down Sainte-Catherine street, chanting, screaming, hollering at the top of my lungs. My throat is raspy, my head hurts, my fingers tremble from the adrenaling surging back and forth, still coursing through my veins. I'm sweaty, I smell like *** and I need a shower. But I'm ecstatic.
I'm not normally a good follower of professional sports, but the NHL playoffs and Olympic hockey are the two big exceptions. There's something to be said about the pride in your city adn the pride in your sport. Because I truly do consider hockey to be my sport. The sport of my nation and of my people.
Nowhere else in the world will you have fans so dedicated to their hockey team as to go running through the streets, chanting for their team and celebrating their victory in nothing but the first round of the playoff series. Nothing more than that was needed to whipe the Canadiens fans into a victory-fueled celebrative frenzy. After a devastating start to the series, the Canadiens came back and beat the Bruins in match 7 with a score of 2-0. Fans here were completely ecstatic. The moment the game was over, you knew the air had changed. We had become invincible. The years of our glory as the great gods of hockey had returned. All we gotta do is make it through the rest of the play-offs... No biggie. We can managed. :thumbsup:
But here's where the rant starts. Why is it that there can never be a peaceful victory celebration? Why must there always be a group of people whose goal it is to turn a generally enjoyable time into a riot?
I decided to call it a night around 11:30 because I have to get up somewhat early tomorrow. As I was walking back to the car with Nik, we came across 1 small fire started with a McD's paperbag and some guys trying to light what I could best compare to a Molotov cocktail.... Why the hell would the victory of your local hockey team inspire you to commit such stupid acts?
As we kept walking, we ended up wandering back through the mob that was travelling back and forth along Sainte-Catherine street. As the group wandered, it engulfed cars. These cars would then be rocked back and forth, making it look like the suspension was getting ready to give way. I mean, the cars looked ready to start bouncing around on the street rather than roll down it. To think that some of those people will have to dish out a good amount of cash to have the suspension redone and maybe some realignment put in too. All because some guys thought it'd be fun to bounce the car as hard as possible. Gawd.
Anyways, as I said earlier, I'm ecstatic and overjoyed by the fact the Canadiens got their **** in gear and tore through those last few games. But I can't help but feel a tinge of regret for knowing that that same pride and joy shared by so many other Montrealers also lead to people acting like complete idiots... Why is it that society is so easily made violent? *sigh*