I never expected to be watching the sixth game of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins and the Canucks but I am. The Bruins are ahead and it looks as if there will be a seventh game! The Bruins established their winning goals right away. Before those goals, 21 seconds into the game Canuck player, Mason Raymond, sustained an injury that sent him off to the hospital. I keep waiting for tempers to flare and play to get rougher as the end of the game approaches.
I was getting my hair cut at the salon the other day when the woman in the chair next to me was talking about ice hockey. She is a devoted, avid fan of the sport. With great animation and finality, she said, ” I like the violence. That’s part of the attraction. The game is physical. I love it. Of course, I don’t like dirty violence. It has to be clean.”
Clean violence. That has been food for thought for me all week. Now I am wondering if I am beginning to like the physicality of the game too. In the beginning the score was 4-0 and I was feeling bad for the Canadians. Now it is 5-2 and I am worried for the Bruins. Another brawl has broken out. LaPierre, a Canuck has been kicked out of the game. Not for clean violence, I suspect. I lost track of the reason.
When my sister and I first, in complete innocence, cut through the crowd in Williamstown, PA, to see the Stanley Cup in the 80s, I didn’t even know what it was. The Lightning had won that year and their manager, Jay Fiester, had brought it to his home town with much fan fare. That town is where my father grew up and we hang out summers. Now I know what the Stanley Cup is and in 2011 it is one game away from the Bruins…or the Canucks.
Game seven has been secured. Game six is over and the fans are going wild. Now we’ll see if the Bruins can win away from home.
There are things going on in our lives besides the Stanley Cup. Tom and I went to his sixtieth reunion of his Mount Hermon High School Class. He was valedictorian and returned with fond memories of his time there. (Its now Northfield Mount Hermon.) I had a good time meeting Tom’s friends and celebrating with them. Three of us had birthdays the day of the big dinner, Chew, Hune (11th or 12th)) and me. All with China connections.
We carefully packed summer clothes for the reunion and then the weather turned out to be cold and wet! Boston weather is never dull.
Listening to a panel of students speak and inhaling the atmosphere, there is no doubt that Northfield Mount Hermon offers an excellent education and has a talented, creative, motivated student body. I found myself wrestling again with feelings about Private and Public education. The tuition there for a boarding student (80% of the student body) is over $40,000. While there are scholarships, the number of students paying ful tuition has increased. I clearly have issues around class. Of course there is room for all kinds of education. The students we met did not seem spoiled or entitled. They were open, kind, and welcoming. But who are the people who can afford that much money for a High School education?
For Tom, Mount Hermon was a godsend. His parents returned from China just before his Junior year and with his mother sick, the school was a perfect place for him as he made the transition back to the States. On a scholarship.
We are having family celebrations for both Alana and my Birthdays this coming week. I am looking forward to being together!
As I wrap this up, the evening news in on. There is nothing on the news tonight but the Bruins. Such excitement in Boston!
Tomorrow will be another day.