With my usual weekend hockey games taking a break, I got my fill with three great NHL All Star games on ESPN Classics, catching a replay of the first USA gold medal at the World Junior Championship, watching "Miracle" for the the first of many times, plus the 2004 skills comp and All Star game.
"Miracle" is really a good movie and Brendi and I both noticed that the kids in the theatre loved the movie, but not the way the dad's did. Anytime a critical scene was coming up all you had to do was look around and see the adult men were all choked up. Grown men, as still as can be, tears forming in their eyes.
Sounds petty, I know. But every once in a while, something as trivial as a sporting event, a music festival, or a protest can make an entire people feel together. There is no way I can relate to a music fan who attended Woodstock. Nor can I say I know what it would feel like being in a march, hearing Martin Luther King Jr. deliver one of his powerful speeches.
I was only 7 years old. It was my first time watching the Olympics. Being home, sick with the flu, I watched everything I could. Eric Heiden kicked everyones butt, I swore bobsledding was "cool," and I saw hockey for the first time. I remember watching that game and jumping up and down on my bed, but it was only later that I realized how great an upset it was. It was like your high school JV team beating the Super Bowl champs. No, it was bigger than that.
The political climate of the time was important as well. People one generation younger than me have no idea what it felt like being in a cold war. Sure, Conflict and Crass may give a sense of what it was about, but knowing that the Reds were evil is different.
I love the way SI didn't put a letter of text on the cover. The emotion is in the photo.
Posted by lare at February 08, 2004 06:10 PM