I ?? Minnesota but...

I ?? Minnesota, my hometown, but I think this is why I also left.

The other night a friend invited me to join him to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Basketball Playoffs Conference Finals Game 7 at Cowboy Jacks.?

I went and when the ‘T-Wolves’ were down by 15 at half then 20 at the start of the 3rd quarter, I took a moment to look around the restaurant and bar.?If it wasn't completely quiet you could at least feel the look of dread and disappointment on people's faces.?I could tell inside the thought was "Here we go again..." You see in Minnesota when it comes to certain professional men's league teams, for the most part the common assumption is we get close but almost always end up losing, just steps from the championship prize. ?

Instead of eyes glued to the TV, they were nonchalantly having conversations at their tables.?Though inside I felt disappointed my selves, as things didn’t look to be getting any better, something inside of me happened.

"I was determined to believe. I was determined to believe in myself that they, the T-Wolves could turn things around. And I was going to see if I could get everyone (at least the T-Wolves fans present) to also believe."?

I turned to one of the guys I knew who was wearing a T-Wolves jersey and his friend and said to them, “They are going to turn things around…right?” Even I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to believe that they could.?I was determined to believe. I was determined to believe in myself that they, the T-Wolves, could turn things around. And I was going to see if I could get everyone (at least the T-Wolves fans present) to also believe. I began to shout, trying to get some help, “Let’s go!!!” I screamed with whatever conviction I had, "Come on! This is Game 7, let’s cheer them on!”

So many people just stared at me. They smiled and nodded and it felt like they wanted to do something but they also didn’t trust in what I was saying. “Come on everybody, we can do this! Let’s go! Let’s go!”?I felt defeated, even before I started. I turned to the rest of the friends at my table and begged them to join me too, but they were feeling let down too. ?

I couldn’t give up, I wouldn’t. I turned to the friends again with the jersey. "Come on we got this! We can win!' And little by little, with their help the three of us began to chant, “Let’s Go Wolves! Let’s Go Wolves!” And before you knew it, the miracle I wanted to happen so badly, began to.?

The other team, the Denver Nuggets, the defending champs, with their 3 time MVP player, playing as he normally does, putting up big numbers, and their other star player who was putting up even bigger numbers in the first half, I believe 20 points alone. These two along with the other players on their team started to miss buckets. They turned the ball over. The T-Wolves, the team with the number one defense in the league, began to get steals, blocks, and then started to score.?They say time after time, every team that wins championships has everything fall in their favor at the right time. When things are going well, they go well.?Every player on the team began to contribute in their own way, from the starting five, to the bench players; and it was amazing to see them playing together, and playing like the champions they seem to be this year!?

Eventually, they got it from a 20 point deficit to 15, 12, 10, 6, then leading by 2.?It was so fun to see how little by little the restaurant got into it, got louder, and believed.?As the hometown team turned things around and in the end won the game to move onto the Western Conference finals. The restaurant was roaring. Everyone by now was cheering, “Let’s Go Wolves!” I and one of my friends, a die-hard T-wolves fan, began to lose our voices. I decided to try Howling instead and it was another fun cool effect.?

I love doing that, Howlllling. It’s like doing the wave in a stadium, but even more primal. The wolf-pack, that’s what I was hoping to see come to fruition and it had.?It was a great time! For the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota this was a part of history being written!?I made a short video reel of what the restaurant was like in that moment: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLsKEdFA/ (careful when you hit play the music will be bumping!)

Here’s the thing though. Most of my life, I always felt the culture in Minnesota is a little too passive aggressive for me. We don’t always commit completely fully…I'll just say many of us, and most of the time. I don’t want to say we don’t commit, cause I know many that do, but I feel the culture here, it’s been known to be okay with staying in between. It seems to welcome the passive aggressive "Minnesota-Nice" behavior. But after spending most of my life, it seems to be I'll say it, "TOO-NICE."

When our team is losing, it’s rare that we get to an uproar and cheer for them to win. It’s like we wait until we are winning before we make the choice to cheer them on. I'm not saying that our fans are better or worse. I've just noticed some patterns after checking out some other places. For example, my friend who grew up in Wisconsin is a huge Pack-Fan! For those that may have no clue what I'm talking about, the Green Bay Packers NFL American Football League. Win or lose he's always rooting for his team. He loves them. Or when I lived in Los Angeles, California. How cool was it to see so many people sporting the blue baseball cap on their heads. Many of which aren't even fans of the game, they just love their city and wanted to represent! I get it Minnesota is very different from New York and LA, even Chicago is different, but have you not met a die-hard Bears or Bulls fan, as my friend would say, "It's the Chicago Way."

I don't hate Minnesota, I love it, it's just maybe I'm built a little differently, and I have on more then one occasion had conversations with others about this. It’s like when someone invites you to something, it’s a common thing to find out that someone doesn’t show up. Sometimes something else comes along, that persuades or changes their minds, something dare I say better! I get it sometimes something actually comes that makes sense for them not to show up (emergencies, etc.)

But come on, there is something about being committed to something and not looking back or questioning your course of action one bit, there is something about simply showing up. If you ever go to a music show, you might know what I mean, it's not bad or good, just different. My musician friends have told me they notice it too, the crowds don't get into the music right away, it usually takes them awhile. I know these are specific instances, but going back to this game. Our team was down on their luck the first half and even the start of the third quarter for a most crucial game 7, this was make or break, move on or end of the season, yet why were the people acting so passive, so lethargic? I know I'm repeating myself here, but Game 7, do or die, why aren’t we cheering, why aren’t screaming for our team to do well? Why are we waiting and watching them to finish the season in a loss.

I know better than to point fingers and to blame people. I’m not. I’m not going to yuck on your yum. But at some point I realized that’s not how I want to live my life and I wasn't going to sit back and not do something about it. In the past years as I've worked on myself more and choosing to live with purpose, seeking more joy, and finding ways to have less stress and hopefully less worrying. There is something I’ve picked up about believing and showing up as your best self along the way. Sure, sometimes things don’t go our way, don't go as we had hoped or planned, but I don’t want to stay in the low, I don’t want to not believe that things can’t get better, that I can't do better for myself. If how we live our lives is a choice based on how we are mentally prepared for it, and if it's my responsibility to change it, then I will do what I can to!

"Set your life on fire, seek those who fan your flames."-Rumi

I left Minnesota, twice, because I recognized I needed to be someplace where my voice, my perspective would not only be just accepted, not just seen and heard, but EMBRACED and in some cases, DESIRED. Like a fire.?

As Rumi’s quote says, "Set your life on fire, seek those who fan your flames."

Did I feel silly being the one shouting, “Come on everybody!?” Yes! Did I feel stupid, waving the made up towel (the restaurant’s cloth napkin) my friend tossed at me, for sure! And when it came down to trying to make a train moving from one end to the other and to turn back and only see the three people behind me, I felt embarrassed not just for me but those that stood alongside me as well.?But at that moment I also remembered my heroes, my mentors, those that fan my flames, and I theirs.?They would have done the same. They would have stood tall on their integrity and conviction and they would have very simply believed.?

I think of that famous line and scene in the movie Cool Runnings.

“A Gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.” -Irv Blitzer?

If we don’t believe we are good enough when we don’t have the medal, or win, then win or lose, medal or no medal, we'll never be good enough with it.?We should see the champions we already are, so no matter what happens, win or lose, success or failure, we already know who we are.?That’s what the T-Wolves did. They showed they knew who they were. They knew their teammates and coaches, and as 9 year vet Forward Karl-Anthony Towns aka Kat said in the last post-game interview, “They played Timberwolves basketball.”?

Go Wolves! Let’s Win it all!?

Thanks Joua, David, Money Mike, Vong, Tou Saik, Eve, Amy, all the fans and new friends we met at Cowboy Jack's.