I’ve never been a hockey buff and I am not competitive as a general rule.
I have watched the Vancouver Canucks with protest over the years only because everyone else in the house wanted to watch games and the fact is, sometimes you just have to share the TV.
I have to admit though, that during these NHL playoffs, I got caught up in the moment and eagerly awaited the next Canucks game.
For a short time, I could talk hockey with the biggest of fans and actually sound like I knew what was going on.
It was great. Our province was galvanized! It was so unlike me to get swept up like that.
On the night of Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals, when the Boston Bruins beat us in our own rink, I was as disappointed as the next fan but what ensued in the streets there afterwards raised many questions about where some people’s moral compass lies and why have some become so willingly destructive or violent?
This is very concerning indeed.
It made me think about a seemingly bygone time when people were a little afraid of the consequences of doing bad things.
Fighting, lying and stealing were the worst of the worst. Words like vandalism gave cause to have to catch your breath.
You just didn’t do it! When the rules were broken, there were usually strict consequences that followed.
We all knew the rules and had the inner conscience to at least feel bad, sorry or embarrassed when called out for breaking them. We took our lumps.
So it distresses me greatly that the last time I heard, there were 87,000 people who approved of the riots on a Facebook page.
I felt a little nauseated watching each newscast.
So I finally stopped watching.
It would have been awesome to win the Stanley Cup but we didn’t and that is enough to have brought some grown men to tears.
Let’s focus on how well our guys did and despite the chaos downtown after; let’s give those who showed up to clean up a pat on the back.
The world is still a pretty good place and there are lots of pretty good people in it.
– Barbara Bleiler is a certified funeral celebrant and advertising rep for The Gazette