The Healing Journey

February 8, 2026

How to love the Super Bowl

By Brian D. Wallace

I’ve finally come to love the Super Bowl
For all the wrong reasons
Because the streets are empty by 3 o’clock
And you can ride a bike down
the middle of the Old Post Road
with its puritan ghosts
peeking out of colonial windows
Because the forlorn Public TV channels
Are marooned with cooking shows
And a boatload of useless antiques
While the citizenry is hunkered down
for the pre-game, the kickoff,
and the half-time show
the salt marshes are emptied
Of intruders and dog walkers
Recovered by silence for the fox and deer
Leaving the marsh hawk to itself
Which is why I’ve come to love the spectacle
Because it becomes its own absence
Sucking all the noise out of the afternoon
Given over to a subversive silence
As if something unintended had happened
With everyone home and no one watching.

***