Patriotism

With the Olympics coming up, and being a sports fan in general, and with the athletes of my country more likely to bring me to tears than almost anything else (such a boy, I know), it's been on my mind that I didn't actually understand what it is that means I'm so excited by a British (or English, Scottish etc, but that's another debate) sports(wo)man or team achieving success.

Part of it is certainly the simple joy of watching people who are amazingly good at what they do, and also the joy of them being beaten by superlative displays of underdogs.

The bigger thing I think I've worked out today though is that it's not the country that matters, I couldn't give a monkey's in many ways what country people represent, the key is the affinity I feel to my people, it's my social group, these people who grew up with similar experiences to me, making the most of the opportunities that were available to most of us. In a nutshell, it's some sort of monkey thing!

I realised that this morning watching the London Marathon, in which I'm not generally interested, but seeing the sister of a colleague at the front (almost) just added so much!

This is a simplification of course, but I think it covers the main points. How do you lot feel about it?