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Okay, Sox fans. They won. It's all over. You can finally rest. There's nothing left for you to live for. So now what? The devotion of your entire life to this storied franchise, buying every piece of merchandise, attending every home game (and even away games), denouncing Yankee fans at every opportunity, and eating, breathing, and sleeping the hallowed colours of Boston baseball, have come to fruition. But the question still stands: So now what?
There's an empty, sinking feeling that comes after a hard-fought success that has no real payoff, kind of a "okay, now what do I do?" sentiment. JRR Tolkien actually coined it when so many people kept telling him about the sadness they felt after completing The Lord of the Rings, even though it had a happy ending. He called it "eucatastrophe" (pronounced like catastrophe, only with a "you" in front of it), which means "catastrophic success".
When the Red Sox Nation is done partying, and revelling, and letting out the pent-up decade-old frustration, they will learn that they have accomplished absolutely nothing. That it really doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme that is their lives. They still have to go to work in the morning, they still have bills to pay, kids to feed, etc......their lives have not been transformed for the better. Utopia has not been found. Heaven has not been reached (and neither has Hell frozen over) and they discover the pitiful secret of obsessive sports fans: it is, in fact, NOT a way of life. The harder you devote yourself to your chosen sport or team, the more you waste your own life. For it really doesn't matter if the Sox sweep the series or go out in seven--the impact it has on your life is exactly nil.
So what drives us to care about the abstract competitiveness of others? Unless you have money on the game (some would argue that's the original purpose of sports), the difference it makes on our general livelihood is negligible. And when the outcome we desire is achieved, it still doesn't matter a whole lot.
The Red Sox Nation can go home happy, and sleep peacefully, comfort in the fact that Bambino's curse has been 86ed. Then, when next Spring comes along, they have to do it all over again.
Only then they will be Cubs fans.
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