5 Things The Golden State Warriors Can Teach Us All About The Power Of A Million-Person Parade

Today, a crowd of reportedly 1 million people showed up to celebrate the 2015 NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors. But why would so many people show up at a parade? 

Here are some reasons why everyone needs a celebration parade:

1. Life's tough: There is so much suffering in the world, that life can get us down. We need celebrations in our lives; we need times to spend celebrating life together and having joy.

2. We seek community: We live in a selfie-world. I was in a meeting once with the heads of one of the world's largest technology companies in the world. Their long-term vision was to ensure that everyone on the planet would not leave their computer screens, but could access anything they needed, from food to clothes to bathroom supplies--and this company would be responsible for providing the technology to do it. But while we sit at our computers and take pictures of ourselves, posting on endless yet empty Facebook feeds, we really yearn for community; we really yearn to have shared experiences with others around shared values--even something as flimsy as allegiance to a sports team. Such experiences fill a void in our lives. 

3. Our world is growing more structured: We spend most of our time inside artificial environments, with little time to actualize who we are and do the things we love to do. Some will claim they love their jobs, but that is not the norm; many of us are in situations in which we feel repressed, imprisoned, and subjugated by. We want to get outside and run, but only have 15 minutes to do so. We yearn for experiences that give us opportunity to scream and shout and cheer and touch our inner children. 

4. Sports parades are vicarious experiences: We watch sports partly because we yearn to be super-human; we not only want to watch our sports heroes, but inside we still want to BE them. They inspire us as people in the ways they push beyond physical and mental limitations; their victories over opponents give us hope that we can defeat ours; their failures give us hope to rise above our own. A sports parade is thus a celebration of our ideal selves--those parts of us that yearn to rise above our circumstances, to take hold of the trophy and hold it high, and, ultimately, to be bathed in the validation and applause of those around us.

5. Solidarity: Our sports team's victory is our victory, and we want to celebrate with them. In those moments, we are no longer ordinary people, but raised to the level of champion. We are in solidarity with the athletes who struggled, failed, failed again, and ultimately succeeded. We are in solidarity with our fellow humans who are that team's fans, and thus our circle of friends grows from a handful to a crowd-ful. It was like the night the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series for the first time; my friends and I were watching the game at the (then) SkyDome on the Jumbotron. When the game was over, we all walked up Yonge Street--an ecstatic throng of fans giving highfives all the way up the street; prior to that, I had never felt so connected to people, and had never shaken hands with more people in my life. That night, amidst the blare of horns and uproarious shouts, we were all champions!