Ceremonyheals blog

Here we are again, at that MOST AMERICAN of all our holidays—Superbowl Sunday.

I have a personal axe to grind with this day, as I am a Capricorn, with a January 17^th birthday.  I suffered quietly from that common indignity of December/ January babies, receiving combination Christmas/birthday presents as a child. But it was Superbowl Sunday that I came to loathe. My father’s already limited emotional presence would withdraw over the month of January, getting displaced deeper and deeper into a television set.

Deeply scarred by the silliness of being jealous of a football game, all of my life I have chosen men who were not avid sports fans.  But Superbowl Sunday day has gotten bigger and bigger over the past twenty years, becoming more and more difficult to ignore.   When the New England patriots played in 2002, I’ll admit to a magical bonding moment with my then thirteen-year-old son.  We were at a hotel for a weekend conference, and I kept the hotel room for an extra night, as a treat to him (we have no television at home). I caught up on blessed sleep while he watched the game, and I told him to wake me up, “if anything interesting happened”.  So I got to see that amazing field goal of Adam Vinatieri’s that won the team the game.

It was a miracle we needed as a country, “post 9/11” with the New England Patriots taking the full hit of our national dreams for a victory…Somewhere… ANYWHERE.

Now, six years later, the nation’s former Cinderella team is behaving like a bunch of thugs. I am not surprised.  With so much money involved, why shouldn’t they be doing everything within their power to win? That is the American Way, isn’t it?

And if you can’t win legally, WIN ANYWAY. That is what I have learned, watching the Bush administration and corporate consolidation of power both before and since 9/11.

 
This Sunday, millions of Americans will stuff themselves with junk food (better than Thanksgiving), work themselves into alcoholic frenzy (better than New Year’s Eve), bet on the game and on the Biggest and Brightest Commercials (better than casino gambling and the Academy Awards, combined), and beat up their women.

Superbowl Sunday is the day when more women get battered than any other day of the year. 

I am drawn to a gentler, kinder community venture this Sunday in the form of a concert in honor of Black History month at Southern Vermont College, in Bennington (see www.svc.edu).

 Next rant: “Super Tuesday”