Contemplating The U.S. Navel

Me, Chicago, Hollywood and The Federal Government

Rebecca Sarwate

Rebecca Sarwate
Location
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Birthday
December 31
Title
Head Writer
Company
Hearthware, Inc.
Bio
I about as liberal as they come, and please don't expect to change me, though I do sometimes sneak up on you with a surprise (pro-death penalty, for instance). Although now gainfully employed as a full-time web writer and social media strategist, I keep my toes in the pool as a freelance theater critic, blogger and board member of the Illinois Woman's Press Association. To read my work on this page is to find vignettes about Chicago, Hollywood, my own turbulent life, and of course, my number one passion: local and national politics.

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Salon.com
FEBRUARY 7, 2012 9:58PM

Super Rituals

Rate: 7 Flag
super bowl party

As I get older, I am starting to realize that social and cultural rituals for which I used to think I was too evolved are beginning to adopt personal meaning.

I am not speaking of the big markers of the annual societal calendar, like the November/December holiday season. I simply have too many family and failed romance issues to get down with that period. Besides I hate the cold and the push to spend money I don't have.

The touchstones to which I am referring are of the more mundane variety: St. Patrick's Day, the annual Oscars telecast and the Super Bowl. I want to BE somewhere on these days, feel a sudden urge that I don't experience at more obvious times to participate and belong. What is it about a community of strangers that can make one feel so at home?

I experienced the now familiar lure this past Sunday. As a huge sports fan generally, and an NFL devotee more specifically, I have always enjoyed the Super Bowl. Once you take into account the commercials, National Anthem suspense (will the chosen singer forget the lyrics?) and Halftime Show (Madonna!!), the whole glittery spectacle is almost too much to resist. And with any luck, the game will be dramatic too, as the latest Giants/Patriots faceoff certainly was.

I met a couple friends at a popular Wrigleyville bar, a place I had never been, but on this day it didn't matter. Every inebriated Chicagoan was an instant pal trying to assess team allegiance, looking for potential kinship and maybe an excuse to buy a shot. It's like all the eye contact avoiding, brisk walks and dehumanization that can often serve as the hallmarks of urban life take a time out upon which everyone has silently agreed.

I used to think that those drawn to participate in the corporate-enhanced mass market rituals that comprise American culture just so didn't get it. Couldn't these lemmings see they were being preyed upon under the guise of collective enjoyment?

Yet paradoxically as I gain life experience and heartbreak, become more used to disappointment, these ceremonies inspire a childlike suspension of disbelief in which I am wholeheartedly willing to engage. Perhaps that is the point of rituals in the end. Everyone needs a break from isolation and introspection. Sometimes we just need something to celebrate.

Author tags:

wrigleyville, st. patrick's day, patriots, ny giants, madonna, christina aguilera, super bowl

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A fascinating piece. We all have our favorite rituals. For me it's Thanksgiving. Say hi to Chi-town for me. I was born in Evanston, not so very far from Wrigleyville.
Daniel Rigney
February 07, 2012 10:19 PM
"The willing suspension of disbelief" was always a key component/ premise of Theatre Arts 101. That ("as if") agreement was what made theatre meaningful and a moving, shared experience. This apparently goes back to the ancient Athenians in 5th century BC. It seems sports serves something of the same function today. [R]
Donegal Descendant
February 08, 2012 01:41 AM
Rituals rule and make all things much more memorable. They are markers in time for events and friends who were there then. Thanks for the POV.

_____♫♥♫_____♫♥♫
____♫♥___Peace___♥♫
___♫♥____Love____ ♥
____♫♥ Happiness ♥♫
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Algis Kemezys
February 08, 2012 02:57 AM
Dam Becky you are the only one that seems to get it on here, and OS certainly isn’t lacking for intellectual acumen. The Super Bowl is a ritual and a culture is defined by its rituals. I am tired of hearing about the commercialization. What do these people expect this is a capitalist country. I wished you lived in NY I would have invited you over my cousins to watch it. My cousin is filthy rich and so are all his in-laws, I am the only radical among them. As a matter of fact I invited a lawyer outside when he started in about Ron Paul and black helicopters. I’m sure you wouldn’t have let me do that but my cousin who made every cent he has the hard way (he used to push wheel barrows for me when he was a kid) enjoys having me terrorize his smug self indulgent in-laws. Anyway back to the game. Eli once again played ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.’ With his Midwestern mannerisms and his awe shucks demeanor Eli embodies everything that made this country great. Because when you back what you think is that rube into a wall he comes out shooting and he is invariably the last man standing. It don’t matter whether it’s a living legend like Tom Brady, or an overhyped upstart like Aaron Rodgers Eli guns them all down and then he gives credit to his coach and his team without ever taking a bow for himself. These were the quality's that enabled America to save the world from the Nazi’s and the Japanese. It is the titanium steel that runs through the spine of America and it was played out in the ritual of the super bowl better than any clerical sermon could ever express. Eli Manning is the genuine article not the product of media hype like Tim Tebow. We can only hope that a man such as that will step forward and lead America from its darkest hour.
Jack Heart
February 08, 2012 07:49 AM
What this piece does for me is put me in the mood to suggest to our community a writing exercise.
One that would be built upon the premise that each writer create a character, secretly keeping that character’s motives to ourselves, and then place them all at a Super Bowl, or Oscar party, and write the scene from our character’s perspective, growing the exercise in scene like chapters
DH Austin
February 08, 2012 10:35 AM