After a snowy winter and cold spring, summer has finally arrived in Boston, and it feels like life couldn’t be better. Come to think of it, it’s hard to think of the last time the city felt this alive. Is it the great summer weather? Is it the influx of World Cup fans? Whatever or whoever the culprit, the vibes here are immaculate, absolute perfection.
By now, many of you have probably read the stories of the World Cup fans – particularly the Scots – descending on the city. And the weather has been just about perfect for a New England June. My social media feeds are full of stories of our utter delight. I’m chatting about it with my colleagues, Uber drivers, and random people out and about. We’re all looking at each other wondering when the last time was we had this much fun in the city. It honestly feels a bit magical and surreal.
The World Cup certainly has something to do with it. Like many others, I’ve been enjoying the videos and stories of all the fun World Cup visitors are having not just in Boston but across North America. And I’ve loved seeing all the tourists out and about in Boston and the surrounding areas. There is something infectious about all the World Cup festivities.
Perhaps I’m living vicariously through all the people who are here on a fun vacation. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for the energy of a big sporting event (I did after all get sucked into Olympic madness back in February and the French Open just a few weeks ago).
But it’s not just the World Cup. I ran a 10k race through the city this past weekend, and even early on a Sunday morning, the vibes in Boston were unmatched. The weather was perfect; the crowd was enthusiastic. The course wound along the river and through Back Bay with beautiful views of the city. It was one of those days that reminded me why I’m so lucky to live here.
One of my favorite writers and podcasters, Anne Helen Petersen, wrote about the potential vibe shift in her newsletter last week. She observed some of the same things I’ve been noticing on the ground here in Boston — the joy and exuberance of people coming together, the excitement of seeing the normal things where you live through someone else’s eyes for the first time, the hope that maybe the vibes are finally shifting away from the hopelessness and frustration of the last several years?
1959-2018
It’s times like this that I think back to one of the very first classes I took for my Sociology major in undergrad – Foundations of Sociological Theory taught by the late Dr. Mary Ellen Konieczny (a brilliant scholar and even more wonderful advisor, mentor, and person). And I remember the day we discussed Emile Durkheim’s notion of collective effervescence. Speaking to a classroom full of Notre Dame undergrads, Prof. Konieczny of course described collective effervescence by asking us to recall the electric atmosphere of a Notre Dame football game and the unifying effect of sharing that experience together.
Because, sure, Durkheim was using the idea of collective effervescence to explain sacred and religious experiences, but couldn’t we use it to describe the electric feeling of all sorts of communal experiences? And that’s what I’ve been thinking about this past week anytime I’ve been out and about here in Boston. The collective effervescence of the moment is unreal: that electric feeling of being a part of something and sharing an experience as a community.
In recent years, that’s been a somewhat scary feeling — we’ve all seen how masses of people can be unified toward all sorts of nefarious and destructive ends. Perhaps that’s why this moment has felt so unexpected, surprising, and refreshing to me. Maybe the vibe shift is getting to witness all these people from all over the world coming together and having fun, the unrestrained joy of getting to relax and play together.
But will this feeling translate into actual change? In this regard, Petersen asked the same question in her newsletter I’ve been asking: “Is it a vibe shift? Or is it just the World Cup during a stretch of perfect weather in June?” Is it just back to business as usual once the World Cup ends and once we hit that stretch of the summer where we’re bored, it’s too hot, and we’re ready to get back to our school year routines?
The optimistic part of me says let the good times roll. Certainly, it’s not all happy moments, and just one glance at the New York Times headlines every day tells me there is still plenty of worrying news to go around. But for now, while spirits are high and vibes are good, I’m doing my best to soak it all in.
3 Responses
The futbol vibe is indeed glorious! It is a celebration of human diversity and a natural attraction that people from different backgrounds can have for each other. I was in Buenos Aires Argentina when they won the World cup in 1978. And even in the midst of the military junta’s violence, the utter ecstasy of a nation celebrating its championship broke the spell, even if it was only for a short time. It revealed a nation’s hunger for the violence and repression to end, transcending whatever the junta was propagating. And in the same way, the World cup raises my hopes and transcends the authoritarian leanings present in their own country, the joy of a global people saying no to that, and also yes to a hopeful future.
Thank you, Allison. I too am experiencing the collective effervescence, hoping for change in the current collective delusion. Perhaps our strongest voice will be that in the middle of chaos we stand as witnesses to the power of effervescence.
I’m old enough to recall the “collective effervescence” of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976. I certainly don’t get the same vibe for the 250th this year. Is it too late? Is there a way that we can all somehow get over the narcissism of one man and come together in joy and celebration? What would it take?