In life and death, a football club is an anchor, a conduit for connections | Jason Stockwood

There is something uniquely powerful about football – a fact brought home to me when my mother died this summer

I read Marc Stears’ book, Out of the Ordinary, this summer and recognised much of what he said in my own experience. The thrust of his argument is that our politics has become intellectually abstracted from how most people live and derive meaning in their lives. We have lost sight of the “everyday”, the joy that it offers in connection and community.

I moved away from Grimsby at 18 and built an itinerant life, studying and living abroad. I eventually settled to work and build a family in London until my children started to develop “cock-er-ney” accents and I had to get them back up north “right quick”. Over those decades my love of Grimsby Town Football Club and the home game schedule created the gravitational force for my increasingly rare visits home. In the last two years I have much improved that frequency, being part of the ownership structure with Andrew Pettit. Aligned with the articles I have written for the Guardian, my presence in Grimsby has allowed me to engage with the questions of purpose, connection and identity as a more consistent part of my hometown community. Importantly and more personally enriching I have spent much more time in the town with my mum, family and friends.