Thursday, February 3, 2011

America's Unofficial Holiday.

      This Sunday is one of the biggest days of the year for Americans. Super Bowl Sunday is an icon of American culture forty-five years after its very humble beginnings. The immensity of the day now overshadows the game itself, and has turned the day into a national celebration. Six hundred and fifty million dollars will be spent on bagged snacks like chips, pretzels and popcorn. Fifty million cases of beer will be sold and well over one hundred and fifty million American friends, families, and co-workers will gather to share the day.
      This Sunday's game is primed to break all records for game attendance and viewership as two of the most deeply loved, well run, and successful franchises in the world of sports meet for the first time. The Pittsburgh Steelers who hold the record for most Super Bowl Championships with six, as well as appearances, this Sunday being their eighth will face off against the three time Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers who not only won the first two Super Bowls but the game trophy itself is named after legendary Packer coach Vince Lomabardi. Just talking about it gives me chills and in my head I can hear John Facenda's unmistakable voice narrating my thoughts. It is truly one of the most epic franchise match-ups in Super Bowl history.
      Despite most of America coming together on this day, there are always the vocal minority who feel they need to have their unwanted and incorrect opinions heard. I used to work with this curmudgeonly old lady  who refused to watch any movie not distributed by Disney, and upon hearing me refer to Super Bowl Sunday as America's Unofficial holiday got very vocal and angry telling me in no uncertain terms that is was not a holiday.
        My first response was who the heck peed in your corn flakes? My second thought was...well not printable here if I want to keep it at all family accessible. Then it came to me that I had really never thought of anybody denying this fact before. I said "unofficial" surely that must blunt some of the trauma of her being told that people around these parts find football important, frankly I'm surprised she didn't know. Long ago football passed baseball as not only it's national past time, but a national obsession, and Super Bowl Sunday is the epitome of that.
      I wondered if her anger had anything to do with the fact that when she was a kid the national past time was swabbing the Mayflower's deck or if this was a reaction to the word holiday. Assuming it was the later I'd still be confused, after all the etymology of the word has changed greatly since it was taken literally as Holy Day as many other words have.
      Holiday's have become so much more than just religious celebrations and have even grown past patriotic one's. Just for example consider Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, and well... New Years Day. I mean seriously what the hell is New Years Day for? All anybody does is watch random College Bowl Games while swearing to God they will never drink again. How is that a holiday in any sense of the word?
      Even Thanksgiving, which is absolutely one of my favorite holidays and one of the most revered and celebrated in this country has no religious or truly patriotic meaning, but it is very important to us none the less. It brings us together with our loved ones to celebrate with food and football, wait sounds familiar doesn't it?
      President's and politicians from both sides of the aisle have referred to Super Bowl Sunday as America's unofficial holiday. As far as I new those were the people who decided what constitutes a holiday, even official ones. Super Bowl Sunday in my eyes is most definitely a holiday whether it's official or not. How many days bring people together like it does? How many days contribute to the American economy like it does? How many days have American's all doing and thinking about the same thing, united in an endeavor, sharing in a moment like it does?
      Now, Super Bowl Sunday isn't even the best football day of the year that would probably be reserved for Championship Sunday two weeks earlier, it is however, America's Unofficial Holiday because it represents America so well. It's a huge party that allows people to indulge in too much food, and beer, be loud, opinionated and pour their hearts into something that allows them to escape from their bad marriages, stupid bosses and co-workers, and everything else on their mind while still managing to remain a day dedicated to American consumerism at its best (or worse). You need to look no further than the famous Super Bowl commercials to see that.
       But, It's also a day when families, brothers, fathers and son's can come together, can take time out of all those daily woes to bond over a common passion. It's a day when friends can get together and renew bonds that have strained because work and family obligations have left them no time. It's a day memories are made and shared and reminisced and I can't think of anything that is more like a holiday than that.

 ON A PERSONAL NOTE
 I want to add a separate thought here. a very personal anecdote if I can. Feel free to ignore it if you wish.

       I have been watching Super Bowls so long I barely have memories of when it started. Although it started when I moved next door to my grandfather when I was three. He inspired my love of  football and the Pittsburgh Steelers at that young age, and it is a bond I have kept with him through these many years. I have watched Super Bowls with numerous family and friends through the years and have valued every one of them.
      There was a year though that I was living with my biological sperm donor (I believe you call them fathers) when Super Bowl Sunday came around. On that day he decided to go bowling. I sat alone watching the game, It was Dan Marino's rookie season and I would love to have had that memory to share with someone, instead, on what should have been one of the happiest days of the year for me I was alone, depressed and miserable. That was the day I pulled out his man card and tore it up, and it was one of the final straws in our relationship. He had left us as children, he had left me alone on Super Bowl Sunday, and it was part of a pattern of abandoning his children that would continue and eventually sever our bonds with him.
       It saddens me greatly that this Super Bowl Sunday, one that means so much to our family, will be the first one that I will not share with my oldest son, he has chosen to be elsewhere, but I am overjoyed I will still have family and friends here with me. I will treasure the time because these moments are getting fewer and further between as my children and I grow older. I wish my father had not been so selfish and had realized how much it meant to me that he stay whether he wanted to or not.
       You think I loved all the time I had to spend watching Pokemon cartoons and movies and card tournaments do you? But as a father these are the things you do, the sacrifices you make that allow you the privilege of being called Dad. For so many of you it's not too late to share a moment, bond and laugh with someone you love and don't forget as short as life is it's not always about what your doing but who your doing it with.
     

2 COMMENTS:

Very nice, Paul. I love your memory of Marino's super bowl (I'm a diehard 'Phins fan), but not so much your memory of your father. Seems like we have a lot in common, and reading through your posts it's refreshing to know you've taken a different path than others in approaching sperm donership.

As for the Mayflower Lady, I had my own little incident on Super Bowl Sunday. Someone I had just added (he turned out to be a wet end if I've ever met one...) to Facebook posted on his wall during the game that he was watching 1939 Three Stooges with his stepfather. I could only wonder if the guy leaked estrogen.

Justin I'm glad you liked it. I'm also happy you found something in what I wrote that you could connect with for better or worse.

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