What People Need

What do people need? Even if it can't be quantified, in tough times people need a sense of commonality. They need a release and a sense of brotherhood even if they don't know it.

I experienced something new and really interesting this week. First off, let it be known that I am not a Baseball fan at all. I don't know any of the names and in general I try to avoid it. However, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series and though I expected some craziness, this was something altogether more than that.I had been at a bar during one of the early games and total strangers became brothers during the game. As I sat there, the guy next to proceeded to high five and back slap me every time something good happened. We would never have even spoken to each other had there not been a TV with that game on. When they won the series, my entire city became part war zone, part party and part religious revival. I live far from the ball park and for hours you could not drive down the street, people were blowing things up and generally just plain raging until the wee hours. People came from all over for this too and it didn't stop there. The entire next day and night were nothing short of nuts all over town. People skipped work and school and basically reveled in the whole thing for as long as possible.I know that this is not an uncommon happening but I never had a first hand experience of it.

Here is what I think. People are desperately bored for one. Most of us live within a certain level of monotony that is, let's face it, not really natural. We work, eat sleep, repeat for most of our lives. When something like this comes along we flip out for lack of a better term. People are lonely, they go from their home to their car to their office to home everyday. This is an isolated existence going from one box to another. Even when we are forced into an environment with lots of other people we choose to put up walls in order to avoid contact. We put our Ipod on or hide behind a laptop. Cafes and public transportation used to be much more social. Outside of someone reading a book, most people went to cafes to meet people and have discussions. So, the big game broke down some of these walls for people. People opened up and let loose and hugged everyone they could. It was something to behold. I've been in other environments like this but I have never seen anything bring people together on this level. All for what I consider one of the most boring sports in human history. I do wish they wouldn't burn so many things but I still thought it was cool.

People just need something to do and they need to loosen up, myself included. I'm not hugging anyone though, I'm from the East Coast!.