Lighght: Lucy Leitner

[LucyXpher 1,337]

October 14, 2024 - Riga, Latvia

 

What's the opposite of nostalgia?  

 

The term "nostalgia" was first proposed in 1688 by Johannes Hofer to refer to the pain or longing associated with separation from family, home, and social environment.  The term comes from two Greek words, "nostos" (return home) and "algos" (pain).  In Homer's "Odyssey"-- and a lot of other ancient Greek literature-- two of the themes central to the story are those of "kleos" (renown or glory) and "nostos" (return home).  As Odysseus sets out on his journey, he does so seeking kleos, glory, by accomplishing great deeds.  By the end of the epic poem, however, Odysseus chooses to return to  his family, setting glory and immortality aside for a simple life at home in Ithica.  If nostalgia is the longing for home or for a return to familiarity, then perhaps it's opposite could be "kleosalgia", the longing for glory, that itch that impels anyone seeking greatness to leave the familiar behind, to subject themselves to discomfort for the chance of becoming immortalized.  If nostalgia is a longing for a familiar place in time that has past, then perhaps kleosalgia might represent a longing for an unknown time yet to come. Yes, I'm trying to invent a word, and it is quite possible that I have lost my mind.  

 

When I chatted with Lucy Leitner a few season's ago, I asked her where she might be in five seasons' time.  Her answer then as she was embarking on her first season in the VHLE was, "Raising the Continental Cup with Riga".  If one can feel kleosalgia like they might feel nostalgia, then perhaps that was what Leitner felt as she left her home town of Houston to pursue hockey glory in Riga, Latvia.  Though her future was unclear, the allure of kleos was too great.  While I can't confirm yet that Leitner shares any kinship with Nostradamus, the prediction of a cup win with Riga in her near future was strikingly prescient.  

 

cosmic is a ringing row of payphones;
dead channel doldrums and anachronistic prescience,
Chiba city shrouded in a haze and shimmering,
sodium-silver and almost painful

 

In S95, the Riga Reign found themselves among the top teams in the European Conference for the second season in a row.  Finishing 3rd in the conference behind rivals Malmo and Moscow, Riga racked up a 50-18-4 record with 104 points.  That point total also granted the team the 3rd overall seed entering the playoffs, 3 points ahead of the NA leading Toronto Legion. 

 

Riga started the playoffs facing a tough Malmo team in the first round.  Though Malmo has put together an impressive string of regular season performances, they have struggled in the playoffs in recent seasons-- a frankly unfortunate fate for such a strong regular season team.  Indeed, they deserved better than to be swept by Riga after a competitive regular season series.  In the second round, Riga would match up against HC Davos Dynamo who were coming off a shocking first round sweep of their own against the Victory Cup champion Moscow Menace.  Through the first four games, Riga and Davos would battle to a draw at two games apiece, however Riga would find a way to win a tight game 5 by a 3-2 score.  In game 6, the Reign would not be denied as they convincingly dispatched of the Dynamo by 6-0 score, punctuated by a Red Panda shutout.  

 

With the VHL's most coveted trophy on the line, Riga lined up against the Toronto Legion in the Continental Cup Finals.  Red Panda would pitch a second consecutive shutout in a 5-0 game 1 win and Riga would go on to stake a 3-0 lead in the series.  Toronto would storm back with wins of their own in games 4, 5, and 6, drawing even with the Reign and forcing an all or nothing game 7 for the Continental Cup.  With everything on the line, the Reign once again jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the game.  The third goal by Axle Gunner, assisted by Lucy Leitner and Kimi Raikkonen, would hold up as the Cup winner with the Reign winning game 7 by a 5-2 score.  

 

cosmic is the flicker of a strobing pulsar;
monochromatic animation and the white word Solitude 
throwing shapes against the grain of a real-to-reel; 
anthropomorphic geometry gorged on starlight, godspeed

 

As they hoisted the trophy and fireworks exploded through the arena, the Riga Reign stamped their names in the record books once again, claiming their first Continental Cup since S72, snapping the 3rd longest active Cup drought in the VHL at 23 seasons.  Lucy Leitner seemed to lack the words to describe her emotions as she sat before the press later that night.

 

"I just-- this is not something I expected at all in my second VHL season!  It's an incredible feeling, like... yeah, it's unbelievable.  I love this team!"

 

In the playoffs, the team was led by Daisuke Kanou and Scott Boulet Trophy winner, Axle Gunner @Steve, who had 12 goals and 29 total points through 17 games.  Notably, Gunner won the playoff scoring race for the second season in a row and captured a second straight Continental Cup, each with different teams. Shubham Anand @Will3 also continued a dominant season with an exceptional playoff, potting 11 goals and notching 27 points, while Kimi Raikkonen @mattyIceman had 9 and 26 overall.  On the blueline, after being outscored by the understudy, Leitner, in the regular season, Skor McFleury @Alex capped off a Hall of Fame worthy VHL career with 24 points in the playoffs and Leitner finished a few points back with 20 overall.  In goal, Red Panda @Lemorse7 pitched a .923 SV%, 2.55 GAA, and 3 shutouts as the team's starter in every playoff game, only losing 5 contests in total. 

 

From top to bottom, this Riga team was built to win playoff games.  With a +20 goal differential in the playoffs, the Reign were strong both offensively and defensively-- a real testament to the aggressive management of @Lemorse7 who did an incredible job over the past two seasons of turning the team into a perennial contender.

 

cosmic is an aphoristic fantasy;
kleosalgia telecast in technicolor;
lo-fi loops leaking through synth swells and a beat
while aberrated Andromeda outruns the open road

 

Chasing glory as ever, Lucy Leitner left Riga shortly following the parade and team celebrations to compete in the Victory ProAm offseason tournament where she would claim victory once again as a member of the Flora Vista Foxes.  I was able to catch up with Leitner for a short chat after this most recent tournament win to check in on how things are going leading up to S96.  

 

"Now that some time has passed, has it sunk in that you're a Continental Cup winner?"

 

"Honestly, it really hasn't.  I mean, I'm supposed to get my day with the Cup tomorrow so maybe it'll hit me then, but I feel like I'm still walking on clouds right now.  Like, this league still feels new to me and we managed to go all the way... it's just surreal."

 

"So do you have anything planned for your day with the Cup tomorrow? Anything special?"

 

"Honestly, nothing crazy or over the top.  I'm gonna spend the day with family and friends in Houston.  It'll likely be pretty low key for a Cup celebration, but I'm looking forward to it."

 

"Do you think coming off this win will make it hard to get ready for next season, or are you going to be ready to go when the season kicks off on Wednesday?"

 

"Oh, I'm definitely ready!  I've been training a lot this offseason and there's still parts of my game I want to improve.  Winning the Cup doesn't take anything away from my motivation. I'm so ready to get back into games!"

 

"Well, another big piece of news is that you signed an extension with Riga to stay with the team for another 3 seasons-- congratulations by the way!  Was there ever any thought of forcing your way out and do you think the team can be competitive again next season?"

 

"Thanks!  I definitely had no intention of leaving.  I've absolutely loved my time in Riga and, truthfully, I don't think I could see myself playing for any other team.  I'm super excited to be here for the next three seasons and I think we actually have a real shot at going all the way again in S96.  Management has done a fantastic job of bringing in amazing new players, even though we lost a couple from this past Cup run.  We'll see what happens, but I'm optimistic!"

 

"So when I talked to you a few seasons back, you predicted that you'd be holding the Continental Cup in 5 seasons time.  Has that prediction changed?"

 

"I mean, not really!  I guess we kinda got it done ahead of schedule, but there's no reason why we shouldn't be competitive in S97 too.  I want to win every season, so that's the goal at least."

 

"Okay, last question for you: what motivates you to keep going on your VHL journey?"

 

"Honestly, it's hard to put into words.  I love the game, but lots of people love the game.  I guess it comes down to wanting to leave my mark on the game, on my team, on the league-- just to be someone that makes the VHL world a better place, you know, for my teammates, friends on other teams, and anyone coming up through the ranks.  I've been so lucky to get to this point and to have this success so early in my career.  I guess we'll see how far we can go!"

 

cosmic is the face of a hapless hero;
the petrified complexion of a star-forged lumineer,
stone-set and steely-eyed, staggered to the earth 
and dragged through holocene sands

 

With S96 only days away, it will be fascinating to see if Riga has the roster to challenge for a second consecutive Cup and how their new additions will fit into the lineup.  As for Leitner, heading into her third season now, the sky is truly the limit.  Having already completed her ultimate objective to win a Continental Cup, it will be up to her how far she goes on this VHL journey and what new heights she can reach.  

 

(Right) Freedom Monument - Riga, Latvia

 

 

──•~❉᯽❉~•──

 

Notes: So before anyone has a mental breakdown because I egregiously misspelled light in my title and even managed to make a graphic with the same error... it's not an error.  No, actually, it's the most expensive word in history and also holds a Guinness World Record for being the shortest poem in existence.  "Lighght" was written in 1965 by American poet, Aram Saroyan who was just 22 years old at the time and became well known for his minimal and experimental poetry.  The poem received a $750 prize from the National Endowment for the Arts-- an award that quickly became the subject of controversy.  As a publicly funded agency, the NEA received pushback from congress and taxpayers alike who viewed the award as a misappropriation of funds, deeming the one-word-poem unworthy of such a prize.  One congressman was quoted saying, “If my kid came home from school spelling like that, I would have stood him in the corner with a dunce cap.”

 

Over the years, the poem has gained notoriety for being a ground-breaking piece of literary wordplay, one that stirred up all kinds of reactions, positive and negative-- which, Saroyan would argue, was half the point.  Saroyan took special interest in the look of words, highlighting in his work how even a simple misspelling could be enough imbue an otherwise ordinary word with additional meaning.  The word "light", spelled correctly, is easily passed over in reading and one would scarcely give it a second thought.  By doubling the "gh", Saroyan forces the observer to pause, to consider if the word's meaning changes, whether its pronunciation changes, and whether "lighght" is fundamentally any different than "light" as a signifier for the signified essence of light.  In a way, it's really less of a poem than it is an image-- it's not really something that someone reads as there's no distinguished subject, object, or verb.  Rather, it's something observed in totality, without a beginning, middle, or end.  In a certain sense, one could read lighght to represent the precarious balance between existence and nothingness.  On one hand, lighght (as an alteration of light) represents the beginning of existence-- the big bang, fiat lux.  On the other hand, lighght is not a word that exists in the English language, at least not in that spelling, so it also represents nothing.  

 

cosmic is a compatibilist conundrum;
a willful wednesday waltzing with the 
dimanche of a determinist demon;
c'est la place, qu'est-ce que c'est la?

 

Okay, something you should know about me is that I'm a bit of a poetry nerd and I'm genuinely fighting the urge to go deep into the weeds because interpreting the poem really wasn't what I set out to do with lighght.  In truth, I hadn't planned to write a feature on Lucy Leitner this offseason.  Riga winning the Continental Cup kind of forced my hand-- perhaps a little like that extra "gh" in Saroyan's poem.  Too much of a stretch?  Well, I'm gonna need you to bear with me here because I'm gonna be reaching for the stars with this next one.

 

I write alot of poetry myself and I have a series of poems (about 70 of them) that I call "astro-gnomes".  Gnomes in poetry are short little poems, somewhat like an aphorism or a proverb.  My astro-gnomes are all four lines long and each one begins with the phrase, "cosmic is".  Like a magician never reveals their secrets, I prefer when poets don't spoil their poems with detailed explanations so I'll just say that they're meant to explore the eclectic nature of the universe as we know it, including references to astronomy, astrology, science, nature, philosophy, art, pop-culture, mythology, literature, music, drugs even-- literally any aspect of existence was fair game.  A few of those are featured in the article above, mostly because I've conjured some connection in my mind and felt like spicing things up to tie into the Lighght title.  If they don't do anything for you, I will not be offended.

 

──•~❉᯽❉~•──

LucyXpher

October 14, 2024

2300 + words

Edited October 15 by LucyXpher

[Steve 1,907]

Amazing work. You are the best

[Lemorse7 1,013]

Words 

[LucyXpher 1,337]

7 minutes ago, Lemorse7 said:

Words 

Words

[LucyXpher 1,337]

1 hour ago, Steve said:

Amazing work. You are the best

No u! 

[Thunder 1,136]

11 hours ago, Lemorse7 said:

Words 

That could win $750