Life imitating art

Stephen Barbara provides a graphic account of his attendance at Fenway park for game 4 of the Amerian League championship series between the Yankees and the Red Sox. While ostensibly an exploration of the psychology of Red Sox fans, it is a study of tribal passions, the persistence of hope, and the inevitability of failure: “Surviving the dark ages.” I believe Barbara is getting at what Montaigne refers to in the title of one of his most powerful essays, “That to philosophize is to learn to die.”