Skip to content

What to Love and How

2019-07-23 · letter vlog · John, Alice Green · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Sports (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, guest or collab

On a family trip to see Liverpool play a pre-season friendly at Notre Dame, John argues that shared loves bind people into communities that ease loneliness, but that we must be careful how we love so our 'us' does not need a 'them'; lifting the European Cup, he concludes the point of it all is to gather.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Driving to South Bend: communities bound by enthusiasms against loneliness; loving together with dissimilar Liverpool fans

  • ★★★ John has been thinking about what we love and how, because loves give us communities, and we need communities bound by enthusiasms to combat what Vonnegut called the terrible disease of loneliness. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Traffic was terrible, but John and Alice amused themselves by singing the Wijnaldum song for two straight hours. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Alice Green
  • ★★ John drove to South Bend, Indiana to see reigning European champions Liverpool play a pre-season friendly at the University of Notre Dame. — 00:00:31
  • ★★★ John has little in common with most Liverpool supporters (jobs, politics, religion), but because their love is oriented in the same direction they are profoundly and deeply together. — 00:00:31

00:00:57 — Fans remember together: 2005 and 2019 trophies; football's gift of an inclusive us, and the risk of thems

  • ★★ Liverpool fans sing the same songs and share a history; John has met them from Indianapolis to Sierra Leone, Hollywood to Stockholm, and they always remember together. — 00:00:57 · Indianapolis, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ When Steven Gerrard lifted Liverpool's fifth European Cup in 2005, John was in Alabama celebrating his engagement to Sarah; his first novel was six weeks old and he was 27. — 00:00:57 · Sarah Urist Green, Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★ John guesses fans will now tell each other where they were in 2019, when Jordan Henderson lifted the trophy for Liverpool again. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Singing hymn-like songs with other fans at the stadium, John again felt football's great gift: it has made him part of a massive, sprawling, inclusive us. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — The urge to create outsiders: religion, football, fandoms; careful how we love

  • ★★★ But usses can create thems: John cites Melinda Gates that every society blames its outsiders, yet the urge to create outsiders is the problem, a lens he finds very helpful. — 00:01:56 · othering
  • ★★★ As a religious person, John has seen his own tradition create and demonize outsiders to bind insiders, and the same in football, YouTube fandoms and political ideologies. — 00:01:56 · YouTube
  • ★★★ We must be careful what and how we love: the question is less K-pop band versus sports team than whether a love sustains and connects us, and whether it needs outsiders to survive. — 00:02:25
  • ★★ John asks whether you can be a Christian without damning those who aren't, a Liverpool fan without hating Manchester United, and whether an us can survive without a them. (unsure) — 00:02:25

00:02:54 — Meeting Patrik Berger and Ian Rush and lifting the European Cup; the point is to gather

  • ★★★ At halftime John, Sarah and Alice met Liverpool legends Patrik Berger and Ian Rush, who generously brought out the European Cup for them; John wept. — 00:02:54 · Alice Green, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John thought of the 14 years between trophies: years with Sarah, two kids, books, YouTube channels, hard times and good ones, with Liverpool there the whole time. — 00:02:54 · Sarah Urist Green, YouTube

  • ★★★ Raising the cup like Jordan Henderson, John felt gratitude for the many usses that loved him into life; he often wonders what the point is, but then knew: the point is to gather. — 00:03:23

    “The point is to gather. The verb that gave us together.”

00:03:51 — Coda: Alice is six, and Liverpool has won six European Cups

  • ★ Alice Green: Asked by John, Alice says she is six and that Liverpool has won the European Championship six times. (playful) — 00:03:51 · Alice Green

In the description and comments

  • ★ In the description John thanks Ian Rush, Patrik Berger, Courtney and everyone at Liverpool FC for the day, and Mohamed Salah for smashing the penalty in the final. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Liverpool FC · othering

Also: People: Alice Green · Georginio Wijnaldum · Ian Rush · Jordan Henderson · Kurt Vonnegut · Melinda French Gates · Patrik Berger · Sarah Urist Green · Steven Gerrard

Works: Looking for Alaska (novel)

Organizations: Manchester United F.C. · UEFA Champions League · University of Notre Dame · YouTube

Concepts: Christianity · loneliness · religion · tribalism

Places: Alabama · Hollywood · Indianapolis · Sierra Leone · South Bend · Stockholm

Events: 2005 UEFA Champions League Final · 2019 UEFA Champions League Final

Only in the description or credits: Andrew Robertson · Divock Origi · Mohamed Salah · Trent Alexander-Arnold · Virgil van Dijk

Also centred on Liverpool FC: Walking the Red Carpet: Thoughts from Los Angeles · The Best Worst Thing · AFC Wimbledon v. Liverpool: Thoughts from the Greatest Game on Earth · A Weird and Beautiful Story · On Sharing the Walk · i like it

← Previous: In Which Hank Consumes the Juice of Over 400 Gushers · Next → The Best $10,000 I Ever Spent