30. Chapter 30
Violence and Obliviousness
Sometimes we ignore what’s right in front of us and we don’t realize it until other people have to point out the thing that should be so obvious.
If you don’t already know this about me, I’m from Hawaii.
That’s right, you’ve been hearing from a beach girl with some killer surf skills and zero experience with ice until recently covering the hockey team.
Feeling duped? Take it up with Jana Iverson.
My mom has virtually no understanding of hockey.
I can’t even tell you if games air on TV in Hawaii, that’s how little most of us care about this sport (at least, the people I know; I can’t speak for the whole state).
Her response when I told her that one of the guys on the BU team had been hurt recently was, “Isn’t that a really violent sport all the time?
” I laughed it off because all sports are kind of violent.
But last week, as I watched guys throwing each other into the boards, elbowing the crap out of each other, and nearly throwing fists on several occasions, it suddenly hit me: Hockey is a violent sport.
Do you know it’s normal for professional hockey players to have missing or fake teeth?
And that there have been some tragic injuries associated with the blades those men wear on their feet?
And that punching each other is allowed in the pros?
Now it’s clear just how na?ve I am when it comes to hockey, right?
All you New Englanders are reading this wondering if I even have a point.
My point is twofold: First, hockey players are full of pent-up rage after their games and there are more productive ways to help them use that energy than watching them punch each other (or so I’ve heard from the men and women who spend time with them after games).
And second, sometimes we need people to point out the obvious to us, so if you’ve got someone in your life who needs to hear something that you think is obvious, maybe you should just say it and see what happens.