Happy August, My Friend!
It’s been a while since I’ve written you one of these letters! Last time I wrote, I was looking out at Lake Superior in all her steely blue glory. Now I’m sitting in my little office in Florida, looking at a photograph on my wall of that beautiful sight. Back to the land of boiling weather for a while!
During that time away, I had the opportunity to take a trip with my daughter, Maria, and oldest granddaughter, Winnie. Winnie had recently turned 16 and a “special trip” was promised. Somehow, I got to be a part of that trip. New York City! Broadway! Shopping! Museums! “Dah-ling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue!”
There was one quite unexpected activity that the three of us got swept up in while we were there. Something none of us really care much about, honestly, so it’s funny how interested we became. What was this, you ask?
Soccer.
Or more specifically, soccer fans.
On our first night in New York, we were walking around (being jostled around is actually more accurate) on the sidewalks near our Times Square hotel. There is an area outside of our hotel called Father Duffy Square, where the “red steps” are located and where lots of people gather to take photos of all the signs and buildings. Poor representations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse are on hand for photo opps, if wanted (we did not want). And guess who I saw there? Remember The Naked Cowboy? He was there, too! I’m not sure if it was the OG Naked Cowboy; he looked too young… not that I looked!! . . . OK, I looked.
As we bumped around from body to body, we noticed a group of people all standing in a large circle, happily watching whatever group was in the middle. The people in the middle were singing and dancing and playing drums. The music and their happiness were catching, and the three of us found ourselves swaying to the beat and clapping along. Who were these people?
“Look at their shirts,” Winnie yelled over the din, “They say ‘Côte d’Ivoire.'”
Wow, these people from the Ivory Coast sure were exuberant! Winnie figured out that the soccer team from that country was playing in the FIFA tournament the next day. These were just a lot of soccer-loving Ivory Coast-ers gearing up for the game. We were hooked! We were fans, too!
All of a sudden, we were all about the soccer games. Yellow card? Red Card? I don’t know nothin’ ’bout this stuff, but I wanted “my team” to win! The lobby of our hotel had several TVs, and we managed to watch part of that game with some other soccer fans. But, alas! The Ivory Coast lost to Germany. Now what were we going to do? I’ll tell you what. Read on . . .
Once again, out on the streets of the city, we happened upon another celebratory group. Music, dancing, singing, drums, flag waving! This time they were right on the iconic red steps. Now, we were experienced soccer fans and so right away we figured this was another group of fans—but from where? Winnie, the youngest and having the best vision of the three of us, said, “They’re from Senegal.”
OK, now we loved Senegal. Go, Senegal! We stopped to watch the celebration, once again getting swept up in the enthusiasm of the Senegalese fans. It’s hard to resist such happiness! And so we watched part of that game as they played Norway the next day. Note to soccer teams: If we become your fans, you’ll lose your game. Senegal indeed did lose to Norway. By the by, there were Norwegian fans everywhere as well. But they were a bit more scattered and not quite as exuberant as the other two teams. You know those Scandinavians… they’re a stoic bunch.
The actual point of my story has nothing to do with soccer. It’s about enthusiasm and the “catchiness” of it. Here were three things I didn’t know a stitch about: soccer, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal. And after just a short time being near these people, I was hooked on all three.
It makes me think about what I might be “exuberant” about. Is there anything I’m so excited about that people take notice? And is it enthusiasm that I have that might be catching, or is it negativity, because that can “spread,” too.
I might not be playing a drum outside my local Publix, or dancing down my driveway to my mailbox, but I sure hope I’m emitting some positivity out into the world and not the opposite, although it’s no doubt some of both.
One last thing: in three weeks, I’ll have been at this Tuesday email thing for five years! I didn’t know when I started if I’d still be writing to you each week all this time later, but I think it’s time for me to change things up. I don’t know what that means exactly yet, but I’ve been tossing around a few ideas. Maybe I’ll switch to writing once a month? One thing I know for sure is how much I have loved writing these letters and how much your encouragement back to me has meant the world to me. I’ll keep you posted as things become clearer to me.
As always, with this letter and all the ones prior, it was . . .
Written with love, Patti XOXO
“Enthusiasm is always an interesting spectacle.
When it expresses itself with an honest and artless eloquence,
it is difficult to listen to it and not, in some degree, to catch the flame.”
William Godwin