a canadiens fan stress...

As I write this, my Montreal Canadiens are in the battle of their lives to climb out of the first round of the playoffs. I am at work, jealous of those who have off and stressed that I can't be at home yelling and screaming at the tv screen. BECAUSE it does make a difference. They can hear me through the boob tube and the coach will adjust his lines based on the yelps, groans, and fist pumping from my couch.

I love this team and I love watching them succeed. But even more I love how the city reacts to their success. We won't talk about when they fail... it is just ghastly (ooooh big word! Ghastly!)!!! But this city has been buzzing with activity and support. I wouldn't be able to count all the flags that people have attached, taped, glued, tied, and welded onto their cars, homes, and place of business. The entire Montreal Fire Department is getting burned (great play on words) for painting the fire stations in support of les Habitants! The mayor is not happy since he is on an anti-grafitti kick. Where is his spirit!? No multiple terms for you! It has been amazing to see how this team's success or failures have tied this whole city together in a knot of electric frenzy!

Montreal is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and hockey is truly one of this city's passions. And whether I am looking at the ugliness of them losing (which doesn't happen often and better not happen tonight), the panic of fans, media, and players as we enter game 7 of a series that should have ended in our favor 2 games ago, or the sound of "ET C'EST LE BUT!" on RDS, I am reminded of how special this all is.

No real other reason for this post... just to go on about my Habs and my city. We're up 1 - 0 right now!

they are god!!!

have.one!, originally uploaded by impactmatt.

Last Sunday my lovely, gorgeous wife and I (hopefully she will read this and I will get some brownie points) were walking downtown Montreal. We love Montreal so much because it is a beautiful city with so much to offer anybody who has any kind of interests. You like poetry, head over to a slam. You like hockey, welcome to the "hockey mecca" of the world. You like latex and fetish stuff let me introduce you to my old part time photography teacher! I am not making this up. I haven't gone though... seriously... ummmmmm.... back to my point!

So we are walking by two street kids who have their sign out and they are asking for change saying that they want to put it towards a happy meal, because there is a Mickey D's right around the corner. Of course being the good Samaritans we are... we were in a hurry to get somewhere. But we passed back shortly after... (yeah we were in a real hurry... we were actually trying to get to church. How horribly unJesus but very religious is that?) and when we passed by again there was a young married couple who ended up giving them two McDonald's gift certificates. It was amazing to see four faces light up with love for another. I know for a fact that the couple who gave the coupon are Christ followers, or Christians, or whatever they are called these days... but you know what? They didn't pass along a pamphlet, or preach, or even condemn them into the fiery pits of hell because of their tattoos and piercing (that last part is laced with sarcasm for those who don't know me that well.)

I like seeing people who normally aren't loved being loved. You can tell that this meant a lot to those streetbound kids. As the pair of "do-gooders" walked away one of the kids said aloud, "Those guys are god!!" I thought it was really appropriate... not that they were, but that by an act of love God was seen and experienced.

(note: the picture has nothing to do with the story other than this homeless guy was willing to share his smokes and beer with me when it was obvious that was all he had. it was pretty powerful for me... he allowed me to capture it on film!)