The Giants Win!

When I played tennis I wore my lucky socks and lucky tennis dress to every match. I genuinely feared that if I did not wear those pieces of apparel I might lose.

When I played platform tennis I wore navy blue to all my matches. I had read that blue was a power color. By wearing blue I had super powers.

When Kara played field hockey all the parents sat in assigned seats. The seating chart was self-imposed-- deliberate by design. Everyone understood that if a parent sat in the wrong row or to the right or left of another set of parents somehow the girls down on the field might not succeed. For two straight years no matter what location, I sat with the Terracianos’ down in front of me and the Norells’ seated next to me, midway up the stands.

My husband has his man cave in the basement. It is actually quite spacious and nice. He has a large desk with cabinets and files and his computer and fax/printer. The walls and shelves are adorned with sports stuff—autographed footballs and baseballs and golf pictures. He also has a large flat screen TV, mini fridge and a genuine black leather Lazy-boy rocker recliner.

During the first quarter and a half of the Superbowl my husband watched the game from his man-chair in his man cave but then chose to come upstairs and watch the game in the family room. The minute he sat down next to me the momentum of the game changed. And at half time the Giants were losing by 1 point. So after Madonna left the stage I told him what he already knew. If we wanted the Giants to win, he had to go back downstairs. By sitting upstairs with me, he was messing up the Giants flow.

And it was because my husband returned to his seat that the Giants got their mojo back. And when Brady threw that Hail Mary pass I knew the outcome. The Giants were going to win. My husband was firmly planted in his Lazy Boy. And the Virgin Mother (who hates Tom Brady as much as I) was sitting in her assigned cloud-like seat in heaven rejecting Brady’s prayer—and approving Eli’s. Good triumphed over evil –again!

And while yes, maybe the primary reason the Giants won was due to Eli Manning’s athletic prowess, superstition cannot be denied or underestimated. Lucky apparel does exist. And color can lend power. The Giants are euphemistically called “Big Blue”---maybe the “blue” imposes super powers. And even if magical thinking is merely the power of positive thinking---whatever works—works. A cure is a cure—even if the remedy is a placebo—or a black leather Lazy Boy chair.