The Joy of the Pack

Living for seven years in Wisconsin most definitely left it’s mark on me. For instance, I have a keen and strong sense of the emotional climate in Green Bay right now. It mirrors the climate when I first arrived in Green Bay in late 1996, just as the Packers were finishing their season and starting their playoff march to the Superbowl. Hoo boy…those were heady times indeed. Now with back to back playoff game AT Lambeau…I can smell it like it was yesterday. It’s rather like having high tension power lines that go right over your house. The entire city is just crackling, buzzing, spitting sparks and occasionally a raw flow of electrons will arc out from Lambeau to various locations around the city. Remember those times when Scotty (or was it Spock) would have to climb up the access tubes to manage the balance of matter/antimatter around the dilithium crystals? Yeah, walking down Main Street, or crossing over the Walnut Street bridge, you have this sense of power flowing all around you, almost raging out of control. You want to scream at Captain Kirk that it’s going to blow at any minute, that you she can’t handle any more power, but your Razr isn’t really a Federation Starfleet Communicator, and your Honda really isn’t the Shuttle Galileo.
Then there was the time when Obi Wan felt woozy when Alderan was destroyed by the Imperial Death Star. The psychic blow of millions of people dying in an instant I’m sure is similar to the spiritual energy of Green Bay when experiencing a football victory (or defeat). Even the anticipation of the event causes instability and excessive fluctuation in the numinal energy field. Maybe I really am a Jedi, and that’s why I’ve had a slight headache all day. And I thought it was because I didn’t have any coffee for the first time in a month.
Anyhow, I love Green Bay. I miss being there. As much fun as it is to be a New England sports fan right now, there is nothing – NOTHING – like being in GB while the Pack is heading the the Big Show. How do I know this? Because I am NOT a sports fan, but I still loved being there because it was such a total immersion experience. It’s so cool to be in the middle of something where everyone – EVERYONE – is totally caught up in the one big thing. The fact that that thing is football was really neither here nor there to me. It was more about the energy, the total immersion and the sheer giddy joy of it all.
I remember my friends in GB at this time, and my best wishes go out to you. Of course, when the Pack meets the Pats…the good news is that either way, my favorite team will win.