So I’ve lost three pairs of socks since the temperature dropped.Aww.Every night, as I fall asleep in my icy apartment, I keep heavy socks snug tight on my feet—a simple armament against the cold.Every morning, as I open my eyes to another blearily cold but exciting day, my feet shiver with anger and my mind buzzes with groggy confusion.My socks are gone.Well, I think I’ve finally figured it out. Stop the presses.The likely cause: my perilous leap to the Hornets bandwagon when Hornets point guard Chris Paul started building up the numbers in that elusive far left column. I think somewhere in my jump to loving Chris Paul, along with a city that did much the same, my socks weren’t able to cling on.Because thousands upon thousands of us jumped onto that bandwagon when the Hornets began being a victorious team.And that bandwagon, led by Mr. Chris Paul, Mr. CP3, saved New Orleans through the shared experience of finally having victory in a city that has been pounded and pounded by the drudgery of horrific reality for the past five years (see: Katrina, Hurricane).Unfortunately for long time Hornets fans, this sudden rush of popularity has left a bitter taste in many a mouth. Some still remain angry at the abrupt appearance of “faux-fans” who had been hiding in the woodworks, because many see themselves as “true fans” who were in the trenches from the beginning. The rest of us are mere posers, nothing more than fair-weather fans, showing up when the team is doing well and leaving when they are not.These true fans are not wrong. Their hearts are more strongly connected to the team’s success without a doubt, but they are missing the positivity in the situation.Their view isn’t hard to understand—fans who have been with the team from the beginning feel they have earned some deeper connection to the team by watching the bad games, sticking it out through the hard times.And they have, to a degree. Their knowledge of the team will always been far superior to mine or to any of the rest of us who hopped on late.But there is nothing wrong with the bandwagon.It’s kind of the point.For example, one of my favorite bands is Modest Mouse, a band I listened to back in 1997 when it released “Lonesome Crowded West,” far before it “went mainstream.”But I always hoped everyone around me would start to love it. I wanted Modest Mouse to show up to “The OC,” (which happened) because that’s how Modest Mouse gets to continue being Modest Mouse. That’s how it makes its way onto a major label and gets all the toys and tools of a huge studio — the dream of a band in the first place — instead of being another poor, failing indie band.Not to mention the fact that now I can talk to people about them, can listen to them with other people, can go see them at sold-out concerts.That shared experience—be it in music or in basketball—is the entire idea of concerts and sports in the first place.And the bandwagon works.Modest Mouse now has the money to make music for as long as it likes and the prowess to make it however it likes. The Hornets were not taken from New Orleans, as would have been the case had no one started showing up to games and flipping the channel to catch CP3 dominating the court. We are a generation that often lies about who we are and what we do, but there are no lies in the shared experience, and that makes it the truest thing we sometimes have to human connection.Why would we disparage this?Sometimes, when our lives feel bleak, lonely and empty, something as simple as watching a basketball game with a friend or catching a good show at Spanish Moon can fill the hole left by all the rigors of reality.Why do we care when someone began watching the sport?And while we may fear the day the Hornets stop performing as well (if such a treacherous day should appear), and all of us who lost our socks in the jump might then have cold feet at the thought of watching a game in which we aren’t the victors, we need to savor the moment while we have it.After all, this bandwagon kept our team as our team. It kept the New Orleans Hornets as the New Orleans Hornets. It kept Modest Mouse as Modest Mouse. And it may have converted a few fair-weather fans into true die-hards who will be there the next time the Hornets needs a boost.So thank God CP3 created a bandwagon for us to jump on. Let’s not be embarrassed by our peaking interest when our team does well; let’s just be thankful that we have a few thousand more people to both share the experience and save our team with.Isn’t that the idea, anyway?—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]