One of the things that I love about sports is the intensity and beauty of a great eruptive celebration. There's something so joyous in the overwhelming YES! that explodes when a team or player scores at a key moment in a game. A basketball team pouring off the bench running and leaping and having a giant group man hug. A baseball player jumping up and down in the outfield a few times before he can even run into join his teamates in glory. An Olympic gold medalist overwhelmed with bliss by her unexpected last second victory. A tennis player falling to the ground with tears of ecstasy as they finally win the big tournament, for which they've trained all their life. This kind of celebration is not something we get to do everyday. We wouldn't come out of our apartment building first thing in the morning and just start screaming victoriously at the top of our lungs. Might get a few looks. But we can do it when our team or player is triumphant. We can hug strangers, yell out our apartment windows, high five passers by, holler in our car and pound the dashboard as we listen on the radio. It's good to experience the pure elation and exultation of being alive, and in sports- whether as participant or viewer- we get a great many opportunties to express this dimension of our being.

One of my favorite celebrations was the famous 'Mayday' goal by Brad May of the Buffalo Sabres in 1993. May's goal won Buffalo its first round series in sudden death overtime. One of the contexts for this goal is that May was a tough, checking forward, who didn't score a lot of goals. So this was extra special for him. And it was a truly beautiful goal. His goal and celebration and the announcer's reaction to it are now legendary.