Why?

I have always been more or less ambivalent towards hockey. I don't watch it and am usually only vaguely aware of the cup finals because of over-heard conversations or advertisements.

When Kim and her family showed up in Nanaimo to take us both to the ferry, she was wearing her Canucks jersey. She wore that Jersey on our entire trip, through Vancouver to Hong Kong, and then from Hong Kong to Vietnam. I would guess that it was close to 20 strangers who spoke to us because of that jersey and shared their hopes and thoughts on game seven. I started to appreciate how something as simple as a shared fan base could bring strangers together in a shared sense of optimism, camaraderie, and congeniality. Kim had planned to use her Canucks jersey as a part of a lesson plan for her Grade Four students. When we arrived in Vietnam we didn't have access to internet and although we knew the game had finished by that time we had no idea what the outcome had been. I texted Valerie at the school hoping she could tell Kim the results. It was then that we heard about the loss and the rioting. This morning we have internet and we can see all the images in the International media and on facebook. In this post-game atmosphere I wonder how Kim would be greeted if she wore her jersey now? I am really sad that something that had linked people in such a positive way has been tainted by the selfish few who rioted in Vancouver.