You know the other day I got to thinking, which is unusual for me I have to tell you.
I got to thinking what makes a Celtic fan a Celtic supporter and could you notice one without any obvious sign?.
Why would a Celtic fan or supporter be different from others ?.
What makes him or her Tic?.
I mention fan and supporter for a reason, for we are fanatical supporters, both have different meanings but can be an explanation of the same thing.
We are fanatical supporters of Celtic.
We are fanatical supporters or justice, of life, of faith, of hope and of course, of charity.
We are fanatical supporters of just cause, it’s etched across our DNA..
Some call us obsessed and I guess there could be some credence in that as well.
Indeed we are obsessed, obsessed with always doing what’s right, we always have been and proudly so.
You see fan comes from fanatic, it’s a word that is used more often than not to describe a supporter yet it has a slightly different message attached when you really think in depth from the word supporter meaning part of a structure.
We are obsessed with always doing what’s right, we always have been even when some of our own actions can seem wrong at times, the pursuit of justice though no matter what is a healthy obsession.
Like our passion and tenacity, like our relentless vision of freedom, like our acceptance of all others.
Yes I repeat, we are indeed obsessed and proudly so, don’t hide from it, it’s acknowledgement.
You see the word fan comes from ‘fanatic’.
(A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.)
(A person whose enthusiasm or zeal for something is extreme or beyond normal limit a person devoted to a particular hobby or pastime; a fan.)
‘ Fan’ a word used quite often to describe an admirer, slightly different message attached when you think in depth, from the word ‘supporter’ meaning part of a structure.
A person who or thing that acts as a support a person who backs a sports team
One that supports, as a structural member of a building.
One who promotes or advocates
An athletic supporter a person or thing that supports, an adherent, a follower, a backer, an advocate.
Admirer, booster, protagonist, champion, friend advocate, exponent, proponent – a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea.
Believer, truster – a supporter who accepts something as true, a devoted admirer and recorder of another’s words and deeds
Cheerleader – an enthusiastic and vocal supporter.
Enthusiast, partisan – an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity
To support to hold up, to prop, to take the weight of, or in street jive, to sportively back.
So on, so forth..
Fanatic and supporter.
Two rather healthy obsessions that bring us the ‘Celtic minded’ together in one mindset.
One word has a different look and tone to the other, one is able to be used as a rod for a back at times more easily than the other and one can easily appear more giving.
Perhaps those differences in mindset are differences that need a wee bit of care and attention in recent times within the rank and file of the modern day fanatical supporter. He who seems to revel in displaying childlike tantrum at every bad result or difference in opinion. A trait of late that is rather unbecoming if I’m being honest.
But maybe we are just in the grip of a generational thing, a generation of the spoiled fanatical supporter.
Maybe we are just low on the castor oil of collective thought in unity, easily corrected. One voice.
Sometimes as most of us know one just has to take one’s medicine accepting the good with the bad, that’s the Celtic way, it always has been & will always be so.
It will become clearer and easier to accept what can’t be changed, as one grows up. An adult told me that, wise he was.
One word of the two though, (Fanatic and supporter) has a different look and tone to the other, one is able to be used as a rod for the back more easily than the other, one can also appear more giving.
Both of course have their place just like the supporter and fanatic.
Both can merge and both are indeed used to describe similar ethos, different yet meant with same good of intention.
I got to thinking all of this believe it or not as I sat looking out the window of a taxi stuck at traffic lights just the other day, yeah that’s how it happens inside this Celtic head.
As I idled away the moments I witnessed this rough looking young fella assist an older gentleman across the road right in front of the cab, he had the old fella by the arm guiding him across, his head lowered to the old timers ear.
I’m embarrassed to say being from Glasgow (shame on me) and I guess wrongly of me, my initial thought was ‘poor old guy, hope that young yin disnay fuckin try to rob him’. Don’t deny it, it happens.
I have guilt for pre-judging that day, something usually I try not to do.
Anyway I quickly argued with those thoughts thinking to myself pull the taxi over to make sure he left the old fella at the other side of the road and perhaps didn’t, deciding instead to go walk about with the old fella in tow.
I then argued with myself the opposite as my good side fought back strongly. Salvation from pre-judgement, I told you so !.
I thought.. ‘Man your so cynical, what if it’s the old fella’s nephew, what if he’s actually just a good Samaritan or better yet, a Celtic supporter’. I then thought probably all three, it’s how we roll after all isn’t it.
The lights changed and the taxi driver who had been talking gibberish to himself the whole time, moved on completely unaware.
That was my entire day caught up now in the headlights of moral gridlock, my conscience, ethic and sense of fair play would nag me all day and it did.
Indeed I thought about that old fella the rest of that day, I thought about the young fella that played his part in this short story too. Finally I decided by the cut of his jib that he was of course one of our good guys and to make things easier in my train of thought, a Celtic supporter.
I came to that conclusion after much deliberation with my own moral code, my values and my upbringing as a Celtic supporter come fanatic.
The recurring questions that followed led me to asking or explaining to myself why we are what and who we are ?.
Celtic supporters, so different from the rest, at least I feel and I do believe so.
I am not saying by any means it’s a feeling or belief unique to us as Celtic fanatical supporters, but I am saying for me personally, I’ve never know it to be any different.
You see, the young fella that assisted the old fella across the road with a kind hand and heart as I finally decided, for me, would have to have been a Celtic fan and supporter.
Why because then he would most probably have been raised with a certain code of conduct, a certain moral standing.
He would believe in helping others, accepting differences and respecting himself, he couldn’t help himself.
I guess then, like you might be, I am an obsessed fanatical supporter of Celtic.
I wouldn’t have it any other way would you ?.
Lwords.
