Why We Cheer and Some Boston Love

I set out to write this post about two weeks ago, focusing a lot on the Michigan Final Four run and what we got from it, assuming we lost.  Laziness and a family stomach bug prevented it.  Now I'm starting it the same day as the bombing at the Boston Marathon, watching news coverage of all this, knowing that it is both an unfortunately believable tragedy in a city that the wife and I spent years in and still love, and fits perfectly into the post I set out to write.  We spent numerous Patriot's Days doing what the people there were doing, and that could have easily been us down there.  If you haven't been to Boston, it is a beautiful, vibrant, fun-loving, and friendly town.  I still miss it sometimes.

Thoughts and prayers

 The other irony, I suppose, is that I planned to lead into the old jump break with a quote from the movie Fever Pitch, which is based on the 2004 Red Sox breaking their World Series jinx (side note - we were in Boston at the time... and let's say I'm doing all I can to be in Chicago if the Cubs ever win).  This post is about why we cheer, aka, what sports can do for us.  And normalcy after tragedy is one of those things.  So in that vein, I'm pushing ahead, business mildly as usual, for the city of Boston.  Here's the quote, and the post, as intended.  We love you, Boston...