The Celtic Family

I would like to take the time to thank every single person who commented on my first blog. I wanted to get my feelings out there but I was doing it for my benefit. I did not anticipate any feedback let alone the volume and the passion behind how people felt.
That blog has turned full circle. I was talking about my passion and what Celtic meant to me, all of you guys not only echoed that but amplified it to the point that I found myself reflecting on what I had said. They were my words and I meant them but the passion behind the response overwhelmed me and I found myself reading my own words over and over, as if they were new to me, hitting home exactly how lucky I am. So thank you. Not just for the kind words but you have all helped me to strengthen my conviction and resolve. I am in a better place because of you.

I made it clear that I had no intention to start blogging. Since you are reading this you obviously realise I have had a slight change of heart. I will never live up to, or replicate the passion and emotion behind my first blog but I do want to talk, now and again, about whatever is on my mind. Not declaring it will be addictive reading but it will be honest and if I am talking about it then I can promise you that I care about it.

I would like to talk a bit about the Celtic Family and what I think it means.
It is a phrase used constantly to describe the club and its fans but that simple definition only scratches the surface.

I only started using twitter about five months ago. I had been ordered to stay in bed for health reasons. This had not happened for years so I found myself frustrated and my days seemed frozen in time. A good friend (@StMiley) pushed me towards twitter and gave me a couple of suggestions for getting going. He explained how there was this ‘celticfamily’ I could tap into and find a group of people with consistently high levels of intelligence and good looks. How could I resist? I started following some clear examples of this, looking for names including the tell-tale signs like ‘bhoy’ ‘ghirl’ ‘1888’ ‘1967’ or more and more frequently ‘notonewco’. Right enough, I started seeing this #celticfamily popping up all over the place. At this point I didn’t even know what a # was supposed to mean but I was hooked. As I got to grips with navigating twitter with my voice recognition my own little celticfamily started to grow. I could list many many people who helped me but without a doubt @celticfamily67 seemed to be campaigning for me. I didn’t know this guy, he had no apparent benefit in helping me. That was when it first started to click. This #celticfamily I was seeing was a real thing.

I was expecting to be in bed for a couple of weeks and was pleased to find something that would help pass some time. It turns out I was stuck in my bed for around nine weeks. I went through some really challenging times, dark days and disappointment due to setback after setback. People I had never met became important to me. They cared, genuinely cared. We all have one thing in common, Celtic, and that made us family.
Offering support without needing to ask, always there when I needed distraction, making me laugh when I had talked myself into a bad mood and completely free of judgement or prejudice (even when it came to a Protestant childhood Killie fan like myself). Just what we all want from our real family.
Few people realise just how much it can mean to get that standard “how are you doing?” tweet. It could come at exactly the right time from a complete stranger and still be enough to halt the mental self harm. Please remember that next time you are bored, you may just change somebody’s day.

So as my cyber family grew and grew I realised that this was not just about the website or the app. This celticfamily was present everywhere. Real people doing real things. Not long from now the UK’s first Celtic convention will take place. Strangers travelling to Blackpool to spend the weekend together celebrating and getting to know each other in the name of Celtic. This involved hard work and dedication (from @celticghirl18 more than anybody) but many people were happy to devote their time so they could bring strangers together and turn them into friends. Jealous I cannot go but I will be there in spirit while having a spirit or two myself in the house.

I thought I had grasped the power of this family, I had completely underestimated its strength. I came across a charity using the twitter account @Hoops4H. The dedication to helping others in desperate need at the other end of the world was astounding. A great guy using twitter as @swiftymac76 travelling to Haiti backed up by the support of people like @plyons45 and too many others to name was inspiring. It puts anyone’s life into perspective, which I was grateful for as it made me realise just how lucky I am. I will resist going into details about this charity. Instead I am going to urge you to visit the website www.hoops4haiti.co.uk for yourself. I cannot stress how proud I am to know the people involved in this and if you can even just read the story then I am sure you will be inspired also. If you can help it is a bonus.

It is not only through the supporters, many of whom I now call friends, using twitter that make the Celtic family so special. The club plays it’s part.

Only last week John Park, Celtic’s Head of Football Development, who is an acquaintance of mine had arranged for Neil Lennon’s PA to contact me and set up a visit to Lennoxtown. I spent the day watching the players train, chatting with Lenny, the rest of the coaching staff and many of the players. I could not have been made to feel more welcome. I have the photographs to look back on but the memory that will last the longest is that every corridor and every room was full of laughter and happiness. The atmosphere was contagious, even caught Mjally cracking a smile at one point. Can understand why players look back on their time at the club so affectionately. They have been part of a big happy family.

Finally, I cannot talk about the Celtic family without mentioning the Thai Tims. Celtic fan Paul Lennon surely embodies what the Celtic ethos is about. He runs The Good Child Foundation in Thailand. A school that offers inclusive education for children with Down’s syndrome, something rarely available. The Foundation is now part of Celtic’s official set up and just last season the supporters rallied together to bring a group of these remarkable children over to Scotland and Ireland for a trip of a lifetime. I am sure anyone who came across these kids will agree with me that they brought just as much joy to us as we did to them.

That brings me to the most suitable of endings. The sadly missed Reamonn Gormley dedicated time out of his life, taken so young and so tragically, to travel to Thailand and help teach these kids. Nothing could better demonstrate what our family is about. GBNF

Posted by Tetraplegic Bhoy on August 24, 2012

https://stevenceltic81.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/the-celtic-family/