Bernstein: Unburdened By Past, These Cubs Are Living In The Moment
By Dan Bernstein
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) You get to have this because it really isn't yours. You project yourself onto it and bask in the reflection of Cubs glory, but it's all just one shared and very, very happy illusion.
Such is the absurdity inherent in all sports fandom but so magnified in this one, a one-way street of connection that's radiating such joy in large part due to the truth that only one end of the relationship cares about it that much. Any historical burden was and is on you, not on the Cubs themselves as on Saturday night they advanced to their first World Series since 1945.
While you're thinking about an endless and fruitless past, they're present in the moment, right where you want them. And that's perfectly fine with them, too, doing it this way with your head heavy and cluttered so theirs can be sharp and clear. Your devotion is unrequited despite the stated banalities and blandishments, because they have more important work to do.
There's no romance in the kind of focus on process that has created this current success, no nostalgia in the rational and consistent planning of the Cubs that began years ago with stated purpose, as openly and transparently as it could be done. Attention has been to detail instead of folklore.
They don't care what every occurrence means, what memories it may evoke or in what context it matters to you, and that fact is essential to what they have done and may still do. Your worries are your problem, and their numerous on-field celebrations all season – both spontaneous and choreographed – have been for what they themselves just did. It's all there for you to enjoy, of course, but it's a kind of parallel play occurring in which you attach your feelings to theirs. You're involved in it emotionally, but it's not for you.
We know they have heard all the stories, but that's all they are to them – no different from any other mundane disappointment somebody else may have experienced. Just because they wear that uniform and play in the same old ballpark doesn't mean they inherit some shared history despite all the seeming desire to make it so. There has even been an active effort to maintain that separation, with the belief that such perspective – or lack thereof – is critically valuable to their ability to perform.
Players have been sufficiently insulated from any gravity exerted by this other world that orbits theirs, your world of your feelings. Fear of failure, hoping against hope, ruing chances missed while replaying alternative realities of imagined headlines and envying others who never seem to appreciate the significance when it's their lucky turn, again. Recrimination, revisitation, a gnawing dread or an excitement you just can't let yourself trust, it's all there.
But it's not theirs. They own none of that. They own the actual accomplishments for which you continue to yearn, achievements you reach out consciously to try to share alongside them. You want it and may need it to forge and maintain what feels like a stronger bond to the people who actually matter in all of this, but they've been best served by being free of the weight of your concerns.
What was, was. What is, is.
These Cubs make their own history.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
