This is how friendship happens... is you find out you don't have to be afraid of them anymore... they cheer for the same team as you... or they cheer for any team... or they simply like sports... or they don't hate sports... or they put up with sports... or... really... have nothing to do with sports... but have something... anything... the same as you... ... ... is how it starts...
It's worship... like, pagan worship... these interests we share... the ability to lose yourself in a crowd... completely safe... walls down... fists up... the team scores... explode... the stadium... as one... one voice... cries together... this is how community happens... ... ... and could care less what sports being played... or band is singing... or sale is happening... just to be carried away with the crowd...
... I've been in a lot of crowds... and a lot of stadiums... Won championships in double overtime... I've seen Fenway when the Sox won... Watched bands playing to sold out concerts... and it's a rush... all the best kinds of carried away...
... and I know the flip side of the group... the fear that comes with a crowd... the fear of the hostile... the way they turn on you... the way everyone gets tested... and the eye of the group falls on you... ... ... or... ... ... the safety you feel when it's someone else the crowd attacks... the way you would do anything to keep it someone else... the safety they must have felt as fans in the Coliseum... the safety we feel behind the glass...
... and it's this safety... unity... nothing ever compares to the collapsing of walls, the safety, the ease of being carried away, even as a stranger, like worship...
... And then there's real worship... I think it might be the biggest loss of anyone that has not gone to church... is not experiencing what it's like to worship... really free...
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