Last Wednesday night, the entire nation, literally the whole of Sakartvelo, was out on the country’s streets to celebrate its victory between Georgia and Portugal at the 2024 Euros, the 17th competition of the UEFA football championship. When the referee’s whistle blew with a two-nil result in favor of Georgia, the scoreboard displayed the results that every Georgian had only dreamed of, and a moment that will live on in their minds forevermore. Thousands of hooting cars and tens of thousands of chanting fans, who were no longer in control of their emotions, took to the streets here in Tbilisi and elsewhere to tell the world that Georgia can make it if it tries hard enough.
The exultation was something to behold. I found myself right in the midst of those victorious celebrations in the wee hours of that happy morning. It didn’t cross anyone’s mind even for a second to go home; the nation was up to rejoice, forgetting that which seemed trivial and mundane. People everywhere were in absolute triumphant exultation, with their wide smiles and cheerful faces popping out of car windows and sunroofs, some of them lodged firmly on the slippery hoods (amazingly, not falling out of the moving vehicles!) and in open trunks with bottles of drink in their hands. Cars with their high-beam lights on were jam-packed, but it was the most felicitous traffic jam I have seen in my life.
I remembered my participation in something like this in Phoenix, Arizona, when I worked as a reporter for American television; I was doing a story about traditional car-cruising in Phoenix. The ongoing physical action and the extensively expressed emotions were exactly the same in Tbilisi, with only one difference: There, it was just an annual car show, yet, here, it was a nation coming together as one, bonded by their pride and joy. The excited public exuded never-seen-before unity and dedication to the Georgian national team, in no way divided or affiliated, and the millions of enthusiastically pronounced words and phrases, firmly and intentionally beat in one patriotic thought: We need to come together to achieve the goals we all have on our minds.
Watching all that, I happily imagined what could happen if that positive national energy was used for the cause of Georgia’s economic development, for instance. The answer was that Sakartvelo would one hundred percent see a result which could propel the country into one that exudes the strength and power of other Western nations.
On Tuesday, the football celebration continued in Freedom Square, the heart of hearts of Tbilisi, the delighted people marching together with as much pageantry and festivity as they could afford, this happening in spite of the fact that two days prior, Tbilisi Dinamo had lost the game to the Spaniards with a heartbreaking score of four-one. But the score has little to do with the spiritual boost and rise of the nation: We truly did well in the prestigious and complicated European football championship. This generation of players undoubtedly deserve the respect and homage the Georgian people are paying to them. Georgian football has not seen success like this for decades, and they need and deserve every cheer they get from us. The way to glory is wrought not only with victories, but with losses too, but a loss can sometimes be as valuable as a victory in its potential for future triumphs.
This past week, I have seen the energy of our nation come together. It may seem fleeting right now, but it has the tremendous potential to be turned into a power that makes this country and nation one of the happiest on Earth.
Blog by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
