There was a time, wasn’t there, when the World series took place in September? Before the NHL started up? When baseball was a game of summer, football of fall, and hockey of winter? Now they’re all on at once. No wonder I’m confused about the seasons.
Anyway, I learned a new word during the World Series. Sociologist Holly Swyers wrote about being caught up in the “effervescence” of the crowd when the Chicago Cubs won one of their final games.
I know the word “effervescence” of course. That’s the bubbles in a bottle of Perrier -- or more expensively, in a bottle of Dom Perignon.
In that context, the metaphor works. The winning home run pops the cork, so to speak. Celebration gushes forth, bubbling, ignoring decorum and social standards.
Swyers cites another sociologist: “Émile Durkheim would call this ‘collective effervescence,’ and he would point out that those present had entered a sacred time/space, from which we would return the next morning to our profane lives … in contrast to the spiritual experience of that moment at the end of the game.”

EXPLOSIVE JOY
“Collective effervescence” is a term that perhaps only a sociologist could create. But we have all experienced it. Paul Henderson’s last minute goal in the first Canada/Russia hockey series. The end of World War II. The splashdown of Apollo 13. The exodus from Fort Macmurray.
Until I read Swyers’ comments, I wouldn’t have thought of those as spiritual experiences. But perhaps they were -- a sudden bubbling to the surface of suppressed emotions, a joyful release of sustained pressure.
Perhaps the biblical description of Pentecost, the day when Jesus’ followers got inebriated by a new spirit -- Peter had to reassure the crowds that the disciples were not drunk! -- was an attempt to put flesh and blood into an otherwise inexplicable experience of “collective effervescence.”
I remember downtown Vancouver, the first time the B.C. Lions won the Grey Cup. (For American readers, the Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League’s equivalent of the Holy Grail.) Exuberant fans poured like foaming champagne across intersections. Traffic stopped. Horns tooted. Strangers hugged each other.
By contrast, the 2011 riots in Vancouver, following the defeat of the Vancouver Canucks by the Boston Bruins in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, were anything but effervescent.

SHARED EXPERIENCES
Ethnologist Joel Robbins attaches effervescence to “not only the revelation of a value, but also the performative realization of it." Or, in shorter words, it’s not just about what happens; it’s about how deeply you care about what happens, and discovering that a lot of other people also care.
Sharing a profound emotion enhances it. Shared joy becomes cumulative.
Even sad occasions provide these opportunities. People meet to mourn the death of a dear friend, a charismatic leader, a quiet collaborator… and discover that they are not alone in their sense of loss.
Such occasions, Robbins suggests, are a social lubricant, something relative strangers can talk about to form connections, a source of excuses for friends to gather.
Robbins also suggests, "We might take a life well lived to be one that produces a steady flow of effervescence."
Yes, indeed. May your cup of life overflow with effervescence. 
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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN

I didn’t get a lot of letters about last week’s column, on the mysteries of the mind. But what did come was interesting. 

Tom Watson responded to the notion that we have multiple layers of our minds working simultaneously, with reference to a cartoon a daughter sent him: "If you ever want to know what a creative person's mind feels like, imagine a browser with 2,857 tabs open. All The Time!"

Robert Caughell understood the multi-tasking problem: “Since my mother's stroke earlier in the year mind has been on overdrive dealing with issues like getting a stair lift, transport chairs, grab bars, etc for our place, having things in both our names changed to my name, etc.”


Mary Elford took the “community mind” concept seriously. “From the community that is me, to the community that is you... Which part would be the one that suggests 'this action is not going to go well...'?  The prefrontal cortex?
“I read a quote from Charles Schulz:  'Sometimes I lay awake at night and ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"  Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."'  I guess that would also be the same part?
“Thank you for giving us food for thought.”

Isabel Gibson was in two minds (pun there, did you get it?) about my point: “I dunno.  If we're the collective brains of the universe, then we're not what we might call gifted. On the other hand, if I am part of a collective brain, maybe I can do my mite a mite better.”


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PSALM PARAPHRASES

The psalm paraphrase for this coming Sunday isn’t a psalm at all, but a chapter from Isaiah, chapter 12. I’ve chosen not to include verse 1, which speaks of a vengeful god whose anger must be “turned away,” and concentrated instead on the expectation of joy. (It’s purely coincidence that matches this paraphrase with a column on effervescence!)

2   God has rescued us from our arid deserts; 
Nothing terrifies me any more. 
I sing of the God who gives us living water.
3   From the deepest recesses of our souls, celebration gushes forth,
4   It spills out across an anguished land, 
As an awed people pour out praises.
5   Their voices rise, like water in the well: 
"Glory to God, who creates springs of life in the deserts of death."
6   So let praise pour out like the living water from the well in our midst, 
the well that is our God.


For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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