Super Bowl, Overlapping Years, and the Difference A Few Terms Can Make

Welcome Year of Here.

I've known for some time that my theme for this year has been something to do with plants, peoples, and places native to North America (more about that and where it came from throughout the upcoming year).  Once Kansas City made it to the Super Bowl, I knew I would write about the overlap* by talking balls and Chiefs at the same time.

Then, this past weekend, I spent some time discussing phrasing with friends and we didn't come up with any name, whether "YoNAN!" (Year of North American Natives) or "Indigenous!" that didn't feel as if had the potential for being cringe-worthy mascot-y.  We settled on dealing with a sense of place, particularly this place, and Year of Here came out of that conversation.

Year of Here is much better in many ways, and I can see some many ways to take it (and will, of course, be asking for your suggestions) but the name weakened my first post.  I was intending to confront my continued support of the Kansas City Chiefs and the racism inherent even in "positive" mascots.  Of course, many people much more qualified than I have already written that much more eloquently than I could (here's one:  Much better than I could write piece on the racism of Chiefs. ). 

But if I am involved with Year of Here, my post can be more about geography of fandom and how much I prefer football to war.  It's like intending to talk about racism and instead choosing to talk about diversity.  It's related.  It's important.  It may be easier and more palatable.  But it is not the same thing.

So yeah, "I set out to do this one thing, but I couldn't articulate it, so I'm doing a variation that I can articulate better, but it is in fact not the same, and I can explain by analogy why they are different, but I can't actual add anything meaningful about either right now" is not a great way to start a new theme.  It is a reasonable reflection of where I am at.

Should you want to discuss, I'm open to listen**

And congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs.  I remember all 8 Super Bowls "my" team has played in, 5 hard losses and 3 wins, and I'm really glad that The Mister, has now had that experience, even if experiencing it from small town Oklahoma with young kids is quite a bit different from being in the place of the team (hey, wait, I could write about that in the Year of Here!). 

*Other overlaps-- birds and pies = magpies and chicken pie
pies to witches= Witch's Pie book, magical baking book and winter apple and groundhog pies
witches to balls = Imbolc pies, moon, sun and various orbs

**Unless you are going to tell me that it is a bad thing that the local scout crossover ceremony will not involve white teenagers dressing in Indian regalia because national Boy Scouts of America has banned the practice.  Or that the tomahawk chop is "just a chant" and doesn't matter.