The past two weeks of the Olympic games, at times, were not easy for us to see. Watching the U.S. Women’s Hockey team, in a shootout, defeat the Canadian team? Oy, painful. Curling?? We thought that in America that word only applied to hair, and now the men dare to “outsweep” Canada?
Watching the amazing Canadian figure-skating duo Moir and Virtue win the gold was exciting, and rooting for the lovely American brother-and-sister team, the Shibutanis, who won the bronze was equally exhilarating and heartwarming because they seemed so in sync with each other. That must have been real “Yiddishe” nachat for their parents. To see how this brother and sister can relish each other’s company, one has to wonder if there was ever any sibling rivalry.
We feel proud of the 29 medals that Canada went home with and the 23 that Team USA was awarded. This is certainly a testament to how much the athletes wanted to win and the amount of effort, passion and talent that went into bringing the medals home.
So here we are, Americans by birth, Canadians for the majority of our lives, back in the USA. How do we handle this dilemma in the sports world? We are fortunate that when we are with a group of people who are rooting for the home team we can easily agree, as the team is usually playing against a rival American team. The Yanks, the Mets and the Knicks are easy to root for as they have no Montreal counterpart (we are partial to the Yankees). It is just when those Rangers take on the Canadiens that we try to not show our true feelings. It is at that point that our altruistic enthusiasm shows its true white, blue, and red colors! That was an awful day last year when the Canadiens and the Rangers competed against each other with all of us Canucks gathered at the Teaneck Doghouse screaming and yelling for the team that ended up losing! We never have to be concerned about the Alouettes, as they are in a different league altogether, and we root for either the Giants or the Jets, hoping that one will win so that we can get a $1 iced or hot coffee (any size) the next day at Dunkin Donuts on our DD App.
We are fortunate that we have never had grandchildren (so far) playing against each other on opposite teams, where we would have to separate in order to share our enthusiasm for each team. Sometimes we think if that were the situation we would probably be better off choosing to stay home.
They say that competition is healthy as long as it is kept in its right perspective. With so many teams for wee, little, bigger and even bigger teams sprouting up in this community, it has to be a strong parent who does not show disappointment when their child is on a team that loses or doesn’t make the grade for the next set of games. It’s all in the frame of sportsmanship (so they say), and this is a lesson of which we have to keep reminding ourselves in order to be strong for our children.
We have learned our lesson. Never yell loudly for a Canadian team while in the room with only Americans! Keep your snide feelings of pride within the confines of your mind. Ha ha ha, we may feel clandestinely, but we have finally realized that we are more welcome in the neighborhood if we keep such thoughts and comments to ourselves.
By Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick
Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick are living in Bergenfield after many years of service to the Montreal Jewish community. Rabbi Glick was the rav of Congregation Ahavat Yisroel as well as a practicing clinical psychologist in private practice. He also taught at Champlain Regional College. The Glicks were frequent speakers at the OU marriage retreats. Nina coordinated all Yachad activities in Montreal and was a co/founder of Maison Shalom, a group home for young adults with special needs. They can be reached at [email protected].
