Thursday 8 March 2012

The comfort of hopelessness

I went to see Arsenal the other night. They were playing AC Milan in the Champions League. It was the 2nd of a two legged tie and Arsenal had lost the first leg 4-0. I had bought tickets prior to the first game taking place. Had I known we would be going into the game losing 4-0, I may not have bothered - not at these prices! But too late, tickets already bought so went along with my mate, Morty.

There was no tension or stress becasue we knew we were out of the Champions League. It was a hopeless task. We were sure we could not beat AC Milan by the required 5 goals to nil.   
So rather than be stressed, nervous and on edge, and because this was a foregone conclusion, a match we'd already lost, a hopeless situation, we were pretty relaxed. Just hoping for a bit of entertainment.

By half time we were winning 3-0, the atmosphere was so electric it would have powered Bonio's light show.        

But with hope came stressfulness.

When the situation was hopeless the evening had potential to be relaxing and enjoyable, in a resigned kind of way. Now there was hope. Now there were expectations. We now needed to get another goal to go level and force extra time, or two to win the tie.

We didn't. But the 2nd half was much more tense and stressful.

Sometimes there is comfort in hopelessness.

And having hope is just sometimes not worth the stress.
   

5 comments:

  1. That's my motto: despair, but be happy.

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  2. My motto is - dis pair, 'cos I ain't washed dat pair yet.

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  3. Much better than "I is fuckin' dis pear..."

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  4. Reminds of the Emotion themed fancy dress party where two blokes turn up stark naked with genitals placed in a hollowed out pear and a bowl of custard respectively. When asked what emotions they were trying to portray the first said "I'm deep in dis pear" and the other said "I'm fuckin' dis custard". it's more of a verbal thing than a written thing.

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