Celebrating Sup Erbulsun Day

This is my kind of place.

Sup Erbulsun Day, as everyone knows, is the greatest holiday in America, far outstripping Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving combined. At no other time is this people so united on one task, so focused on the production of plaque and the clogging of arteries, so dedicated to a display of quasi-homoerotic violence between two totem creatures endowed with mystical portent and power- in this case, the producers of steel, and red birds. Considering the importance of steel at the center of the American myth of power and providence, it was perhaps therefore predestined who would come away with the coveted venerated prize.

(That bit on the homo-erotic, over the top? Perhaps so. But I can point you to a really excellent anthropology study I read in seminary looking at the latent homosexual tendencies within football. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

But, to return to my celebration of the holiday...it was at the church I've been attending these last couple months, Living Hope. At the rented center where we meet, we gathered to watch the game, eat, fellowship, and maybe play some other games as well.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the dome. No one watched the game. Well, there were, I think, two. Everyone else played Wii, talked, and played board games. (I participated in a couple rounds of Scruples, which was quite enjoyable.) Sure, when there was an exceptional play on the giant movie screen, we would stop and watch the replay of it. We stopped for a couple commercials, but most weren't that good this year. That 100-yard touchdown was exceptionally cool, as were the two last-minute touchdowns by both teams. But no one here considered the game itself to be of great importance. It was more the opportunity to gather, and share.

I think I've found my people.