On the verge of an historic victory this evening, when the rags-to- riches, worst-to-best IU football team (15-0) takes on Miami this evening  . . . to achieve the College Football National Championship . .  and all eyes in Bloomington are trained in one direction only: towards Miami; even avuncular crones, like me, who are “not into” football, or sports in general for that matter. But this time, its suddenly different! Even I am under the collective spell, of both the team itself, of its Heisman trophy quarterback Mendoza

Fernando Mendoza: Living Archetype for Our Times

and of its astonishing movie-worthy coach, Curt Cignetti.

 

Yep. We’re all held entranced, thrilled, expectant. The police department is also gearing up, for whatever! And yet this evening the weather will be unusually frigid here, so they probably don’t have to worry.

So fun to participate in team spirit at this level! So rare for one such as I.

I imagine this team spirit — which for the team itself, is composed of what they they themselves call a bunch of “misfits,” none of them with star-rating to begin, and so many of them, and as a team now, all of them plus their extraordinary coach and his assistant coaches, IU admin, alumni, student body, staff, faculty etc. etc., centered together and pulling in one direction, towards victory.

Victory over another team? Well yes, that’s the prosaic version. Victory for the near-perfect team spirit shown here? Yes. Team spirit that goes beyond the rules and roles of the game itself. Team spirit that infects the atmosphere around it, and, as I said, has even infected my avuncular self.

 

But then I think back to 1991, when, after a long, scary wait that had the entire world terrified, the U.S. finally decided to bomb Iraq (Operation Desert Storm), and thus ignite what is now called “The 1st Iraq War.” (The second Iraq War started in 2003, when we invaded that country.)

I remember hearing about the 1991 start, and feeling thrilled! My body surging in response to this news! And then instantly, mentally noticing the feeling, horrified!

I didn’t want this war. Of course not. And yet my body did???!

Mind-body split! Yes! But Descartes was wrong. It’s not “I think, therefore I am”; because my body, in this kind of extreme situation, apparently, rules. Relieved to feel the discharge of pent-up emotional energy, if I don’t notice that this is what happens, then my mind, captured, will go along with it.

Heil Hitler! all over again.

I then realized that the power of the surging collective pulse to capture an entire population emotionally is, basically thoroughgoing and fail-safe. There is not one who is not autistic who doesn’t respond, or I should say, react. Because what is happening is not mental, not a matter of a free will decision; it is emotional; we are in resonance, carried along by the enormous collective tide. And unless each of us is thoroughly in touch with, centered and grounded into our own earth-formed bodies, we are liable to such emotional capture.

Okay, so contrast then with now.

 

Again, there is the surging emotional energy that has an entire population (centered here in Bloomington, and radiating out), rallying around the “home team.” But the difference between these two examples is stark.

In the first case, WAR, what is being activated is the emotional body in service of actual conflict, with winners and losers, dead body counts. (Who is old enough to remember the Vietnam War? The daily Viet Kong body count shown on top right corner of TV screen? I sure do.)

In this case, SPORTS,  what is being activated is the emotional body in service of a pretend conflict, or, I should say, a real conflict that goes by certain rules which both invite precision, danger and cunning, and yet attempts to ensure that no one is seriously hurt. Sports and other such games trigger the innate human need to excel, to compete, to win, and transform it into pretend.

But meanwhile, in this particular case, what is being celebrated is both individual acumen and physicality and a profound team spirit that honors and appreciates the realized capacity of each individual on the team. And if we generalize from there to this community as a whole, the way the mayor did yesterday, if we consciously realize that this kind of experience feels good for everybody who lives here, just imagine, if we expand this to the entire world, a radiating field of joyous expressive energy, as human beings, each of us realizing and celebrating our unique individuality, with all nourished by our extraordinary team spirit.

Question: do we have to have an enemy in order to achieve this goal? Was Reagan right?

Or will pretend enemies do the trick.

Or . . . in regards to global situation now, will supposed enemy “Iran,” for example, be defused without war?

Or . . . how about right now, here and now . . . for example, ICE and its increasingly rabid detractors.

I came across an old notebook this morning, and found this note. Would make a great T-shirt message. . .