‘Tis the season to be giving, gracious and humble.

A few months ago, my former friend and current nemesis, Mark Atkinson, and I exchanged hilarious and insightful and competetive commentary during the Stanley Cup Finals of 2011. Kurt Heinrich still refers to this series as “your [my] best work” – honestly, I’m not too sure how to take this, as I had to remind Kurt that I did recently crowd/love-source a four-part, difference-making discussion of 99 ways that we can leverage our humanity to make our communities more vibrant, engaging and sustainable. But, hey, Onion-like sport-humour that ironically draws on regional differences and stereotypes for the purpose of gladiatorial-esque entertainment is meaningful too.

Anyway, Mark’s Boston Bruins defeated my Vancouver Canucks in seven games and, well, it was an epic experience that stole a piece of my soul and hasn’t allowed me to fully open my heart to hockey in the same way this season.

But enough of that. I’m moving through it…

Anyway, Mark and I made a friendly wager on the 2011 Finals. The winner earned the right to laud over the loser as said loser donned the opposing team’s jersey, snapped a picture of it, and then posted said picture on the Interweb for all to see. Why did it take so long for this loser (me, see below) to post a picture? Well, the Vancouver community ruined everything with it’s post-loss behaviour, and fun-spirited bets about hockey just didn’t seem appropriate, timely or fun. This being said, I’m a man of my word.

Because I love Mark and because I am a person of honour, here is my photo:

Happy holidays, Mark. I love-hate you so much right now.

–

Masthead photo of “Downtown Bridgewater, Nova Scotia” courtesy of The Stakhanovite Twins