The hold hockey has on the Canadian psyche struck me again a couple of weeks ago as I was researching, writing and recording a piece on the formation of the Canadian Blind Hockey Association.
Mostly, we Canadians are a reserved bunch. Except when it comes to hockey.
Spectators can go crazy at a hockey game, especially when a fight breaks out.
Hockey brings out something in Canadians that’s hard to fathom.
Hard, that is, until one tries to learn to skate.
I did not grow up in Canada, and except for a brief stint as a goalie back in seventh grade (because I could barely skate), I never really played the game.
But about 15 years ago, I decided it was time to at least try to do something about that.
My wife, Mireille, who is Canadian, got a pair of skates for Christmas and asked me come skating with her.
I accepted and off to the local rink we went.
I quickly learned an important lesson: learning to skate hurts. Really hurts.
I spent a lot of time falling down. Ice is hard, falling is easy.
I also also spent a lot of time struggling to get back up, arms and legs akimbo. There was lot of slipping and sliding involved–and inevitably–more falling.
All the while, five-year-old kids whizzed past, some of them skating in reverse, adding more than just a touch of humiliation to the process.
The experiment proved a miserable failure.
The experience-as horrid as it was–got me thinking about Canadians and their love of hockey.
Is it for real? Or is it something else.
Is it not possible, I wondered, that all that love for hockey hides something deeper, say repressed anger and resentment?
Think about it for a sec. A three-year-old kid, learning to skate, has just landed on the ice for the 10th time in five minutes. He’s hurting all over.
At this point, an adult (likely a parent) skates over. “Come on, get up, that doesn’t hurt!” the adult says.
Can that kid be blamed for wondering (never out loud), “How can I ever trust anything this person has to say again?”
Thus, the seeds of victimhood and parental resentment are firmly planted.
I have no idea how many Canadians have spent time on a couch discussing their learning-to-skate experience with their shrink. Not a lot, I bet.
It might cut too deep.
Besides, there’s a hockey game to play, and a lot of Canadians play it really well.
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