Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Seasonal Departure From Rational Thought

Intercession of Saints, Green Bay Packer Football, Superstition

At great risk of any of you regular readers getting the idea that I am prone to superstitious beliefs I'll have you know that I am on very good terms with my threadbare Packer shirt from a decade and a half ago and my lucky green wool socks.  To my mind it's all perfectly reasonable.

I consider myself to be on rather good terms with St. Hubert who is the patron saint of hunters.  This is a perfectly rational belief grounded in centuries of religious practice.  There are certainly more football fans than hunters. And are not Packer fans of a similar religious fervor?  So why not an official patron saint?    

You're probably thinking - You're wrong Tom.  There already is a saint.  We see him at all of the games.

I've thought of that too. The problem is this is not official.  No street cred.  Mind you, if someone can produce evidence of miraculous cures or other seemingly inexplicable events attributable to the venerable Vincent Lombardi I'm all in support of canonization.  I'd even settle for beatification.  

I'm a patient sort and until someone at the Vatican pursues my suggestion I'm nominating St. Sebastian to come off the bench and fill this role.  As the official patron saint of athletes I figure Saint Seb is probably as good a substitute as any.

Which leads me to the subject of the Packer Tree.

Sure, we all know that you have until January 20th to haul your tree to the curb for the city to collect but I'm issuing a plea for everyone to refrain until after February 5th which is the date that the Green Bay Packers will win Super Bowl XLVI. 

Last year Jill redecorated our Christmas tree with Packer lights and it remained on our porch until the Packers returned with another Lombardi trophy to add to their growing collection.

The way I figure it - the Packer Tree played no small role in contributing to the outstanding play on the field of battle.  I refer to this as strong JuJu.  So this year we're doing it again.  Jill even added more lights.  More lights = stronger JuJu.

If more people did the same thing just think of the irresistible force the mighty Packers would become. 

Speaking for myself I'm experiencing a wee bit of anxiety over this weekend's game.  My day job necessitates that I speak with or email back and forth with people in New York and New Jersey on a daily basis so there's a certain amount of friendly ribbing.  And some friendly wagering.  But I know that these followers of the Giants are nervous too.  One guy emailed me this -  Giants look fantastic on both sides of the ball, but when a back-up quarterback puts up 400 yards, it's a daunting task considering Rodgers is starting.  To my way of thinking if The Pack can knock-off the Giants this weekend we're home free.  Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet that nobody back east has a Giants Tree on their porch.

Just to be sure I'm going to be wearing my lucky hat and maybe light a candle or two...

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