The Idea of Fighting

I don’t miss fighting. Rather, I miss the idea of fighting. I miss the idea that, at any point, the pressure and tension and drama of a game can explode in a hail of fists; ten men losing their shit and addressing their emotions the way we’ve been taught not to. The cultural significance of fighting is complicated. To me, it was always a little like watching pornography. To paraphrase Susan Sontag: “For the first ten minutes, all you want to do is fuck. For the next ten, it’s the last thing you want to do.” I wonder if there’s a way of getting those first ten minutes back while stopping the next ten from happening.