Back

You will never walk alone | Day 225 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Aug 14, 2023· 3 minutes

When I was a child, my father taught me to enjoy football. It did not stick so much that I actually care about football now, but I preserved the ability to enjoy it.

Somehow, anyway, I understand the hype.

It was a great pleasure to live in a true football-religion-flat. The house itself was painted very colorfully with the city symbol of a bird holding a leaf; also, the symbol on the football flag and scarfs and directly on the apartment walls were portraits of football stars. The walls were also decorated with the team song, and all pillows had the logo and part of the song - mostly “You will never walk alone” printed on them.

This is the key to football as a religion. The loneliness. Or, more precisely: The human craving for belonging. There has been so much lost in modern society, and football can sometimes mend it: bring people together, makes us feel part of a tribe, part of something bigger.

Communal singing to a symbol or a connectedness used to be part of rites of passage and seasonal celebrations - and done with the tribe, to a community of people with whom you shared everything. I believe there is a deep longing for that in us in modern times (and here, I mean all ages since the Industrial Revolution). We need to feel part of something greater, something shared, with those we know. 

Hyping about a football team can create that and has created that. Sadly so.

Or wait. Not sadly so. It is somehow great.

What is sad is that it has taken over from spirituality and everyday belonging and taken such center stage in some people's lives that it has become an obsession. Because even though football is a lot of fun, and some players are downright amazing at what they do, football can not give you all your eternal soul is looking for and will not create the nuances of a community that has your back in all elements of life.

So here it is: Complex again. Let’s enjoy football and even enjoy supporting “our” team or country's effort to win, but let’s at the same time not forget our eternal soul and the vast greatness of the Universe. There is more to it than football can cover.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our life like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

See more images on Facebook

I am reading this book and I just love it, Antifragile. It is a perfect concept. This is how we are strong: Risktakers, awake and alive, ready for mi…Read more
Feb 15, 2021
Are we homeless?
Technically we are homeless – But the abundance of freedom, the beautiful sunshine, the adventures, and the peace is amazing. Read more
Feb 14, 2021
Be my valentine
We believe it was no coincidence, we saw the red bus for the first time on Valentine’s day. The red bus has everything to do with love. Read more
We have the freedom and the means to go where we want to go; we earn enough to live the life we want, we do the education at home; no one is attached…Read more
Our Weekly Art & Nature Challenge! One of the big wins of the unschooling, full-time traveling & digital nomad lifestyle is time. Time to be together…Read more
The dream became a plan, the plan became a to-do list – we bought a bus, rebuilt it and finally, we did the transit into full-time in the summer of 2…Read more
We have been a nomad family for two and a half years. It is not an eternity, but it is a long time. The kids have grown, we have all learned. The que…Read more
Children are forced to internalize the values and structures of society, telling them school is for the better. Let us set the children free. Read more
My sons are laughing so hard, they can hardly stand, as we were voluntary and together in our home – studying Sokrates and the discipline of logic. Read more