Groups

When I was travelling back to uni on the saturday just gone I was watching the people that were getting onto the train and I couldn't help but notice that there were two very distinct types of groups.
The first group were obvious to spot; they were footie fans coming back from a match. Mob mentality and all that, you could pretty much write a psychological essay on it! They were quite intimidating and rowdy, we had to have the British Transport Police on the case, and they actually rode with us on the train to Liverpool. (There were about 40-50 fans)
The other group was a total antithesis to the 'mob' they were communicating without speaking; only actions and it was quite a sight to see these groups of people together. The other group I am talking about was a group of people that were deaf, and communicating with sign language. It was so strange just seeing the two groups and noticing similarities and major differences between them.
The fans were shouting, singing and talking to each other loudly, they all had something important that they had in common; the support given to a local team. I finally understood what people mean when they say that football can be a religion to some people. They talked with such a passion, and zeal, I almost felt ashamed to be standing with them; being a Christian and feeling that if I had tried to start talking about God in my life, I would probably start feeling guilty about taking up people's time etc.
The other group had an important link to each other too; and that was the need to communicate. The ironic thing was that each of these groups were exclusive; the football fans were the only people that truly knew what went on on the pitch that day; other people might have been able to get the score off of the TV or something, but they had that shared experience that only they fully understood. This was so similar to the people that were hard of hearing; they were an exclkusive 'club' too, and only they could understand their conversation (unless you knew sign language, but its the same for the other group; you would have had to have gone to the match to fully understand why they were acting the way that they were).
It just hit me at that moment, the contrast and the similarities. Of two lots of people that were so different, yet the same.