11-24-2023, 10:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2023, 07:20 PM by xenosthelegend. Edited 2 times in total.)
I have lived in cities south of the 35N latitude my whole life, so I have not been neighbors with too many Canadians and am unfamiliar with their traditions and customs. Growing up, my basic understanding of Canada consisted of their affinity for hockey, maple syrup, and saying “eh?” a lot. Fast forward to my viewing of How I Met Your Mother to find that Canadians do indeed love hockey, maple syrup, and saying “eh?”, but they are additionally afraid of the dark, frequent Tim Hortons, and celebrate “Thanksgiving” but more than a month earlier than Americans do.
So to give some respect to the neighbors up north, I decided to step out of my ethnocentric bubble and do some rudimentary research to enlighten myself on Canadian Thanksgiving. First of all, it is observed on the second Monday in October, but some families celebrate on that Sunday prior. Secondly, it is thought that the first Canadian Thanksgiving was conducted by explorer Martin Frobisher in 1578 to thank God for his successful crossing of the Northwest Passage; which is different from the American version that is heavily based on pilgrims and Native Americans. Other than the origin and date of observance, Thanksgiving is relatively similar for Canadians and Americans with one notable exception…
In my research I stumbled upon something that made me heavily roll my eyes. The day after Thanksgiving in America is known as “Black Friday” because traditionally that is the day when stores go from red to black (turn a profit) for the year. Nothing screams ‘Murica more than consumerism, so it is only fitting that we have piggybacked a day of rest, familial connections, and gratitude, with the concept of buying stuff to fill the proverbial “hole” in your life.
But I digress. Speaking of Thanksgiving and eye rolling, I wanted to share my Thanksgiving experience from yesterday. I have been in the league exactly six weeks from yesterday, and as a couple people know, I was brought into the league by a relative of mine, @DangWookie. He refers to me as his “cousin-in-law, if that is a thing”; I say relative because he is related to me through familial ties. In fact, I was at his wedding and he was at mine. All of that is to say, Thanksgiving was the first time that I have seen DangWookie in person since I joined the league, and the first thing his says to me is not the traditional “Happy Thanksgiving” it was “you excited for Monday?” (referencing the start of the new season and my first at the ISFL level).
It was a moderately large gathering of 25+ people and as we sat down to eat, DangWookie asks me if I drafted him (RB – Ace Anderson – SAR) on my fantasy team. I told him I had the second overall pick and (rightfully) used it on someone else, but I told him he went fourth overall much to his surprise. However, this unknowingly sparked a conversation from another relative… “what are you guys talking about?”
Now, before I go further into what happened next, I want to pause for a moment to address the inevitable question that any ISFL user has received on many occasions. It is always some variation of, “what are you talking about?” Answering that question is tantamount to explaining to someone why do people like Marvel movies; at its core, the answer is “they just do”. Something is either enjoyable or not. You either like something or do not. When it comes to the ISFL, you can explain the dots, the simulations, the updating, the earning, or whatever else, but fundamentally the “why” always comes back to, “it is fun”. If you are in the ISFL and have not quit (or are even reading this), then at some level you find this whole thing fun.
So flashback to Thanksgiving and DangWookie is legitimately explaining the dots, the simulations, the updating, the earning, and even showing the YouTube stream of a game, “…and that is my player right there.” My favorite parts of this interaction are the various blank stares he is receiving as people are trying to process and understand what he is saying, followed by the heavy eye rolling that his wife is doing sitting next to him. To which she says, “he spends his real life time on this stuff”. Now, I piled on because I found great humor in doing so by saying “yeah, he legitimately spent an hour of his time recording a one hour podcast for this”.
As the night went on, discussion of the ISFL continued intermittently. At one point, there was another attempt to convey the “why” again but this time I came to the defense of the league. It actually was brought about by something @homercrates said – basically, some people are just looking to mid earn around friends. “Not watch the dots live or do medias. It's a fun way to go sometimes.” Honestly, the acknowledgement at the end of the night was basically that the ISFL is a hobby that you do (hopefully) with friends and find enjoyment from it.
Ultimately, that is what I hope for everyone in the league and in life. Find something that you enjoy doing and do not feel like you have to explain “why” to others because sometimes… you just do.
So to give some respect to the neighbors up north, I decided to step out of my ethnocentric bubble and do some rudimentary research to enlighten myself on Canadian Thanksgiving. First of all, it is observed on the second Monday in October, but some families celebrate on that Sunday prior. Secondly, it is thought that the first Canadian Thanksgiving was conducted by explorer Martin Frobisher in 1578 to thank God for his successful crossing of the Northwest Passage; which is different from the American version that is heavily based on pilgrims and Native Americans. Other than the origin and date of observance, Thanksgiving is relatively similar for Canadians and Americans with one notable exception…
In my research I stumbled upon something that made me heavily roll my eyes. The day after Thanksgiving in America is known as “Black Friday” because traditionally that is the day when stores go from red to black (turn a profit) for the year. Nothing screams ‘Murica more than consumerism, so it is only fitting that we have piggybacked a day of rest, familial connections, and gratitude, with the concept of buying stuff to fill the proverbial “hole” in your life.
But I digress. Speaking of Thanksgiving and eye rolling, I wanted to share my Thanksgiving experience from yesterday. I have been in the league exactly six weeks from yesterday, and as a couple people know, I was brought into the league by a relative of mine, @DangWookie. He refers to me as his “cousin-in-law, if that is a thing”; I say relative because he is related to me through familial ties. In fact, I was at his wedding and he was at mine. All of that is to say, Thanksgiving was the first time that I have seen DangWookie in person since I joined the league, and the first thing his says to me is not the traditional “Happy Thanksgiving” it was “you excited for Monday?” (referencing the start of the new season and my first at the ISFL level).
It was a moderately large gathering of 25+ people and as we sat down to eat, DangWookie asks me if I drafted him (RB – Ace Anderson – SAR) on my fantasy team. I told him I had the second overall pick and (rightfully) used it on someone else, but I told him he went fourth overall much to his surprise. However, this unknowingly sparked a conversation from another relative… “what are you guys talking about?”
Now, before I go further into what happened next, I want to pause for a moment to address the inevitable question that any ISFL user has received on many occasions. It is always some variation of, “what are you talking about?” Answering that question is tantamount to explaining to someone why do people like Marvel movies; at its core, the answer is “they just do”. Something is either enjoyable or not. You either like something or do not. When it comes to the ISFL, you can explain the dots, the simulations, the updating, the earning, or whatever else, but fundamentally the “why” always comes back to, “it is fun”. If you are in the ISFL and have not quit (or are even reading this), then at some level you find this whole thing fun.
So flashback to Thanksgiving and DangWookie is legitimately explaining the dots, the simulations, the updating, the earning, and even showing the YouTube stream of a game, “…and that is my player right there.” My favorite parts of this interaction are the various blank stares he is receiving as people are trying to process and understand what he is saying, followed by the heavy eye rolling that his wife is doing sitting next to him. To which she says, “he spends his real life time on this stuff”. Now, I piled on because I found great humor in doing so by saying “yeah, he legitimately spent an hour of his time recording a one hour podcast for this”.
As the night went on, discussion of the ISFL continued intermittently. At one point, there was another attempt to convey the “why” again but this time I came to the defense of the league. It actually was brought about by something @homercrates said – basically, some people are just looking to mid earn around friends. “Not watch the dots live or do medias. It's a fun way to go sometimes.” Honestly, the acknowledgement at the end of the night was basically that the ISFL is a hobby that you do (hopefully) with friends and find enjoyment from it.
Ultimately, that is what I hope for everyone in the league and in life. Find something that you enjoy doing and do not feel like you have to explain “why” to others because sometimes… you just do.