Giving up on something you love

In My Humble Opinion
41

Sports

For decades, I was the epitome of a Die-Hard Cubs Fan. If you were to cut me open, I would bleed Cubbie Blue. However, even when I was in the throes of my Cubs fandom, I knew that, once they won the World Series, it would be over for me. For the Cubs, not winning the World Series was their thing. Then they won. I was as joyful as the next guy, but I haven’t watched but about 10 pitches of baseball since then.

I was also a moderately casual (gridiron) football fan, and religiously played fantasy football in a league that includes some family and friends. I always begrudged the NFL for taking itself so fucking seriously, and turned a blind eye to other things about the league that bothered me. But over the past 10 years the shameless appeal to Trump Bros, the military fetishism before games, its continual turning of blind eyes to player conduct and its refusal to deal with CTE, have all just put a bad taste in my mouth. I dropped out of my fantasy football league and the most attention I pay to it is checking the standings now and then (my family are Bears fans and my Mom is a Saints fan, I like to see how each team is doing from time to time).

Over the past decade I’ve taken an interest in soccer. I’ve adopted St. Louis City as my team (I live in Missouri, about 95 miles from St. Louis). Their inaugural season was one for the ages! More broadly, however, I have no real connection to any European team so while I appreciate the quality of play across the ocean, I have no team to root for over there. International soccer is fun to watch, despite the USMNT brining naught but disappointment for as long as I can remember. And the days of the USWNT being dominant appear to be over.

Religion

This was a tough one. When I left religion I also left behind a community. And music. Some of my favorite songs are (were?) religious ones. It’s a bit of a disconnect trying to enjoy the music while ignoring the lyrics.

Religion-Adjacent

When I ditched religion, I adopted skepticism. The problem with that is that my newfound skepticism allows no room for the belief in the paranormal that I once had. I used to love reading about ghosts and watching TV shows (later YouTube videos) about ghosts and such. Now all I do is just laugh and say it’s faked, or pareidolia, or whatever.

Also, now that I no longer practice Christianity, I’ve lost interest in Christmas. That sucks, because Christmas was somewhat fun. But I’m willing to die on this hill: if you don’t practice a religion, you shouldn’t celebrate its holidays.

42

Does that apply to all the Christians who co-opted a pagan holiday and replaced it with a story about a guy who was probably not born in Winter? Who stole all of the traditions of other religions to make everything all about them?

Christmas is a perfectly fine secular holiday. Either that or Christians have no business celebrating it, either.

43

I’m an atheist. Also I wear a lot of black and I listen to metal. But I love Christmas. People taking the darkest time of the year and making it light isn’t a thing I need God to enjoy.

44

One of my favorite bumper stickers says “Let’s put the Saturn back in Saturnalia”.

45

For me, it’s been American (gridiron) football.

I grew up in Green Bay; Packers football is pretty close to the state religion there, and I became a serious fan by the time I was 11 or 12. I watched every game, I knew the roster backwards and forwards, and I had tons of Packers gear and decorations. Even after I moved to Illinois as an adult, and couldn’t get every game on TV, I listened to games on the radio, and I was thrilled to actually be able to watch my Packers win two Super Bowls. I’m a season ticket holder (tickets which have been in my family since the late '50s), and I’m a Packers shareholder.

But, over the past five to ten years, that ardor has really cooled. Part of that is what’s come to light about the brain damage which the game inflicts on many players, and how the NFL tried, for many years, to downplay that reality.

And, part of it is that the league, and the teams, have worked very hard to monetize every single moment of the year, and squeeze as much money out of the sport (and its fans) as humanly possible: games on Thursday nights, games in Europe, breathless wall-to-wall coverage of non-events like the scouting combine and the draft, and now, official partnerships with sports gambling companies, as the league seeks to get “its share” of gambling on football.

It’s just turned me off on the sport. I still pay some attention to what the Packers are doing (though I don’t often watch games now), but a lot of that attention is so that I have something to talk about with my father when we have our phone calls. My father’s about to turn 90, and I suspect that, once he passes (hopefully not for years yet), I’ll pay even less attention to football.

46

Those season tickets are (as you are aware) very valuable. Do you give or sell them to people who want to attend the games?

Like many of the people in the thread, I used to be an avid sports fan (Dodgers, Lakers, Kings, Chargers) and watched the games and followed the sports closely. The older I got, the less I cared. When I cut the cord I lost the ability to easily watch sports and I didn’t miss nearly as much as I thought I would. I don’t mind watching if I am at someone’s home where it’s on and I oddly like to keep track of “my” teams by checking the records every few days.

My favorite thing to watch was NFL playoffs. Last year I got a free week of fubo to watch the two conference championship games and it was excruciating. Half of the time was commercials and promotions and the noise and a lot of the graphics gave me a headache. Clearly part of this is old age grumpiness because things couldn’t have changed that much in the four of five years since I watched more regularly and I still like reading about sports.

47

I sell them through a ticket broker. My cousin holds the season tickets for the two seats that are next to my two seats; four seats together are very much in demand, and my cousin and I coordinate and sell the entire set of tickets for the season to the broker.

It’s not quite as profitable as it was a couple of years ago (when the Packers were better), but it’s a nice little return on investment.

48

OMG! I can’t believe someone else has these dreams. I’ve never been what I would call an aquarium enthusiast. Our family had a 10 gallon tank when I was a kid. We had Tetras, Mollys, Zebras, etc. I fed the fish and that was about it. My kids had goldfish in bowls. One lived for many years. I had the great idea of getting a small tank for my office about 15 years ago. I thought it would be relaxing to watch the fish. It turned into something I dreaded because of the upkeep. I am now aquarium free and happy about it. I have dreams every so often where I have giant aquariums that almost fill a room. There are hundreds of fish in them and in the dream I will be in a panic because I’ve forgotten all about the fish and haven’t fed them in years. I will also open a door and suddenly realize that there’s a forgotten aquarium in there. There is so much vegetation in the tank that I can’t see the fish.

49

I’m glad I’m not alone! It’s such an oddly specific dream. But I guess it has the same anxiety of flunking a test because you forgot to take the class (I also have those dreams, but I think they are more common.) The idea that you’re responsible for something and are failing in your responsibility. And in my aquarium dreams, the longer I neglect them, the worse I feel – but the more afraid I am to look in the tanks. And I just worry that everyone’s going to find out about all these fish that I let die due to neglect.

Ugh. I hate those dreams!

50

My dream fish are never dead! They seem to thrive in their unkempt tank.

51

I was a dyed-in-the wool roman catholic, then left for lutheranism and finally one day I said :REALLY?" eternal life? invisible beings? angels? That was it. Also a dedicated packer fan but I cannot invest any more energy into the NFL. I am deeply cynical about the whole sport.

52

Has anyone mentioned the MCU yet?

My husband and I are both Marvel fans and we’re both sick to death of Marvel movies. There are a couple good ones still out there, I’ve heard, but I can’t bring myself to want to see them.

53

Total agreement here!

54

Similar for me. I still watch/listen to the teams I’m interested in but I don’t watch pro/college football/baseball/basketball like I used to. Just not entertaining to me anymore.

55

Well, I guess it’s curtains for you then. Millions of people celebrate holidays which arise from traditions they were never a part of.

56

I celebrate St Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, xmas, easter, and many other holidays that I have absolutely no ties to. They are all just excuses to celebrate and who doesn’t enjoy celebrating?

BTW, today (November 15th) is National Raisin Bran Day!

57

I can’t celebrate that. I’m on Team Grape Nuts.

58

March 7 is National Cereal Day.

59

Me. I look for reasons to avoid celebrating.

60

Here’s my favorite holiday site:

Scroll down a bit to see the list of all the things people are celebrating all over the planet every single day.

Here’s the list for today:

Date Name Where
Nov 15 Wednesday Saint Leopold’s Day Austria
Day of the German-speaking Community Belgium
Republic Proclamation Day Brazil
National Peace Day Cote d’Ivoire
Bhai Duj India
7-5-3 Day Japan
Bhai Tika (Tihar) Nepal



The idea that any group “owns” the right to participate in a celebration is so 1500s. I don’t know exactly what they do for Bhai Duj, but I’m sure the food is good. The country names are clickable links to pages with more details on each.