Monday, September 10, 2007

I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me

We pulled into the Blue Lot at the stadium a little before 9:30 on Saturday morning, tailgated until 3:00, and then went in. When we were on defense, I yelled so loudly that the 9-year-old kid in front of me in the Brady jersey first covered his ears with his hands, then switched seats with his dad. Then his dad covered his own ears with his hands. When Oregon made it 25-7, I was in agony. When they made it 32-7, though, it stopped hurting. The game's importance just dropped away from me and I fell into the bitter sarcasm familiar to all Lions fans.

I came to the realization that I just can't put the same emotional investment into this team that I usually do. The Year of Infinite Pain is still fresh in my mind, and I know that I wasn't always pleasant to be around then. I don't want to know what I'd be like when faced with this season's Year of Impossible Torment if I took every loss as hard as I did then.

I'm not abandoning the team. I'm going to show up to nine games this season where I'll cheer loudly enough to distress small children, but I can't put as much of myself into this as I usually do. I still care, and care deeply, but I'd rather not be an alcoholic by December and I don't need the little black raincloud of despair following me every day. I probably won't be as vigilant in keeping up with all of my blogroll, and there's no way I'm reading the collective rending of garments in the game day open threads. Perpective is what I'll be striving for.

Of course, all of this detachment is going out the window as soon as the team shows some signs of life, only to kick me to the curb the next week.


I went up to Wazoo Records for the first time in a while on Saturday and bought The Sunset Tree, which has a line I like in it, even if applied under very different circumstances.

There will be feasting
and dancing
in Jerusalem next year.
I am gonna make it
through this year
if it kills me.

Step back off the ledge, people.

The Mountain Goats – This Year

7 comments:

Sanjay said...

There appears to be a problem with the mp3 link.

Sanjay said...

Also: What's the plan for MMB coverage? We're all in pain from football, but your subtitle is "Michigan Football and the MMB"

I'm hoping now that we've resigned ourselves (somewhat) to what's happening football-wise we can talk about all the changes going on with the band this year...

Craig Barker said...

I won't presume to speak for Geoff on this, but it was my understanding that the band coverage will not be going anywhere, as that is one of the ways in which we can mitigate the pain, by enjoying the Marching Band.

But I am sure that Geoff and Jeremy will be able to speak to it moreover.

Geoff said...

Link is fixed, thanks for the heads-up. And yes, I certainly plan on talking more about the band than usual. In the short term, I took 48 pictures on Saturday and almost all of them were of the band, at practice and on the field. I'm putting something together for (hopefully) tomorrow.

Jeremy said...

That's only the subtitle because certain someones who have editing control of the blog haven't updated the banner yet.

Sanjay said...

Awesome. Glad to hear that MMB content is coming soon. Keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

egads i love that album. if anything bright comes from this season it is that you've shared this music with others.