Monday, September 22, 2014

Peyton Manning is a Patron Saint

I don't think I need to tell anyone that, culturally speaking, football is a pretty big deal here in the US. As I'm typing this I'm trying to think of a single place in the States where football isn't a dominant social driver and I'm coming up with...Hawaii? Maybe? Anyway, it certainly is here in Denver.

Except, like, five times as much.

"You know how you know that God's a Denver Broncos fan?" asked roughly 10 Denverites by now.

"No" I respond, pretending I haven't heard this one before.

"Because the sunsets are blue and orange."

...

The Broncos are routinely a pretty successful team, which irks me as a fan of the Chiefs (read: not so routinely successful team), so I suppose you could credit the devotion to that. But most people who follow football a little more than casually know that it’s a little deeper than that. True, success breeds loyalty, but even unsuccessful teams have this “loyalty beyond reason”, a concept a marketing expert could explain far better than I could.

Still, the reasons hardly matter. This city bleeds blue and orange (a combination which ironically gives you the actual color people bleed) and it shows. Every Sunday people from every class, race, and part of the city don their Bronco jerseys. They all know the offseason moves Denver made, all the records Peyton has broken and is on pace to break, and most importantly all the reasons they’ll go all the way this year.

It’s actually kind of a remarkable thing to watch. Mondays-Saturdays, people pass by each other on the street and on the buses like you would expect in any city, interacting only when necessary. They have places to be. But on Sundays, everyone’s a part of some family. Wearing that orange permits you into some special club where you’re trusted, where you’re cool, where all that other stuff that used to divide you doesn’t matter anymore.

It’s a good thing. It might be hard on the surface to see the societal good in a game featuring overpaid jocks slowly murdering each other, but it’s undoubtedly there. The sport may be going through an image problem, namely running backs that are having trouble containing the beatings to the field, but this class-defying togetherness it almost naturally generates is without question a positive byproduct of the sport.

And who else would sit at the helm of this strange social unifier than probably the best quarterback in the NFL, nay, the entire world; Peyton Manning. I think it’s fair to say that this social club didn’t need such a legendary leader to continue, but it doesn’t hurt that over half of all those jerseys have his name and number on the back. This city’s devotion to Manning is borderline religious, and he rarely disappoints them (except, you know, in the Super Bowl).

Having such an undisputed poster boy only serves to strengthen the society of Broncos fans. Here is a symbol around which this brotherhood can thrive. A man through which their optimism is consistently justified, a name that by itself gives them rightful cause to believe they’re going all the way this time; after all they do have a defense this year.

And so, as much as it kills me as a Chiefs fun to put this in writing, Peyton Manning is indeed a Patron Saint (I’m not Catholic but it’s a decent alliteration so just go with it). Anyone that can fuel such a social miracle deserves to be canonized, as it is in this interaction that we create God’s Kingdom on Earth.


So sure, Denver. I’ll concede that God is a Broncos fan. But I’ll just point out here that the sky is blue all the time everywhere, so the big guy must be a big Kansas City Royals fan too.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Well hey there.

Most of you are aware of all the experiences I had here at orientation. All the thought-provoking sessions. Going to NYC. The amazing people. Beautiful Stony Point.

For all the rest of you; Hi mom.

I'm not really sure if there's anything I could post here to fully encapsulate everything I've learned. I'd almost rather not try to explain it all than fail to explain it properly.

What I'll leave you with here, just about to leave Stony Point for Denver, is that I have plenty of surprises ahead of me. Hopefully you all and God will join me along for the ride.

Monday, June 30, 2014

First Post!

Hello there everyone! This is my, JD Hershberger's, blog for my coming year of service in Denver, CO through DOOR/YAV. I'm probably not gonna post much until that starts in late August, but once I do I'll probably have something up about once a week. Stay tuned!