The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions. I could end things right there and there would be no more left to say. The words themselves defy belief and yet there they are, the proof in living color on our televisions and live-wire shivers down our spines. The images—a ball, grounded to the third base side; a hit, down the line in left; a flash of Cleveland red, dancing around the bases in short-lived exultation—will stay with us forever. This was the greatest game this, the greatest of all American sports, has ever given us, and it gave it to us. The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions, and there is no more left to say.
But say more we will, because we cannot allow ourselves to look away. We cannot allow ourselves the moment to reflect on what has happened, because reflection—with its attendant distance and calm—feels inappropriate to the moment. The moment we are living in now must be lived in fully, inhabited and drawn into every corner of ourselves, until we are sure we are full to bursting with the sheer joy of it. The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions.
In the days that come, there will be more written about this game. There will be more said about this moment, for it was everything we hope this game can be. Do not think of those stories now. Do not live in the future. Live in this moment, right now, because you will take it with you until the day you die.
Lead photo courtesy Ken Blaze—USA Today Sports.