Football and Church

Well today is my first experiencing of a Saints game in New Orleans and Church as well, both are pretty instilled in this cities culture. The city of New Orleans was founded by Catholic missionaries and well church has just always been this town, the town stops in the morning for churches to hold their services, and I have never been in a city where church is so engrained the lives of everybody. I mean I went to a Catholic university but even there, church was just always sort of in the background of the culture of Gannon.

I feel like I should talk a little about my church experience today, because for the first time in 6 or 7 years I attended a Methodist church. It was kind of weird to come back to the church of my roots, especially with the complicated relationship I have always had with the UMC. It was strange returning though, because it felt strangely like home, or like a college kid returning home after being away for many years. I remembered all the prayers and the songs and the rigamarole of a typical UMC service, but it all just sort of flooded back to me, very fast and I felt suddenly as though I had never really left the church. The pastor who admitted at the beginning that she was a solid feminist (which I liked by the way) gave a very inspirational sermon on the value of growing up, not only physically, but in all dimensions of ones life, obviously focusing on the spiritual self. She managed to incorporate this message of growing up and always learning throughout the entirety of the service, from the Children's moments to the fact that we sang a new song as a congregation. It seemed as though this sermon came at the right time in my life, considering all the growing up I have been doing lately.

The next experience of the day that I would like to discuss is the first Saints game I am experiencing as a resident of the city of New Orleans. It's interesting watching everyone (even me) engaging in wearing and supporting the NOLA Saints, wearing our Black and Gold, and worrying about getting around while the game is going on. The idea of football in the south is fundamentally different than in the north. It is different in that in the north people watch and cheer on football in the same capacity as they do in the south, except in the south, entire towns shut down for the football team to play and give their contribution to the cities vitality of morale. Even those who don't really like sports or football for that matter (myself included) find themselves talking about the recent game, or different players on the team. It is crazy to watch as a northerner, listening to my supervisor at work for example who came from Arkansas saying that "before she came to NOLA she could care less about football, but now she gets emotional about the team and when they win." Football is a whole other game for those in the south than it is for those in the north. Well I must exit this blog for a while, mostly because i am tired, but also because I have to go watch the game, Who dat? nation has arrived.

Until next time,

Peace