Ode, To Be A Fan

I have one singular focus this evening. After focusing on work, then a meeting, then dinner my mind and television has been set for an event on ESPN. It’s the Oregon Ducks versus Oregon State, the annual civil war rivalry that may mean more this football season than any other. The Ducks are ranked 7th in the country and have home field advantage at Autzen Stadium. But the silly Beavers, ranked 16th in the country keep trying to come back and actually lead at halftime. Whoever wins this game goes to the Rose Bowl. This is huge, the biggest game of the season and I’ve been waiting for this all week.

That said, today I was thinking about what it means to be a fan, specifically a sports fan. We all know the word itself is shortened from “fanatic” but what are the most interesting first uses of “fanatic” or fan in the English language in historical terms?

Today’s offering comes from three quotes, from oldest to most recent and I’ve created a poem from their words. The first is from Denis Diderot, the great French philosopher who translated and adapted the English Earl of Shaftesbury’s letter called Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit from 1699. The second comes from George Santayana’s Life of Reason in 1905 and the third from Sir Winston Churchill. Their exact words have been made into one poem and I hope they would not object.

The Fan

From fanaticism
To barbarism
Is
Only
One
Step.

Fanaticism consists
In redoubling your effort
When you have forgotten
Your aim.

A fanatic is one
Who can’t change his mind
And won’t change
The subject.

Said the Earl,
Through the Thinker,
And Santayana
In his reasonable way,
And Sir Winston
with whom I couldn’t agree more
especially while watching the Civil War.