I do not share a great deal of personal stuff here on this great site.
However I feel the need to at this moment. Sometimes a single moment in life just jumps up and bites you. It brings tears to your eyes, and there is no stopping them.
Last night, I called my Brother.
My Brother is an editor for a news paper in British Columbia Canada. He is also a very good writer. We are very close, as is my whole family.
Well.. I called my brother after watching the Canucks come back from a first period 3-0 deficit to beat the Maple Leafs 5-3 on Hockey Night In Canada.
As soon as he answered the phone I knew he was rushed. He told me: "Rick I have to call you back, I just had a moment in my life that I have to capture in words right now, while it is fresh in my mind.
Knowing him, I agreed to call him back. I did. I said what happened, he said Atty just cried his first team tears.
I said: You wrote about it. He said damn right.
Below is what he wrote and will appear in the Editorial Op-Ed next week.
I am sharing this with you all. I know it is not football, but we can all relate....
The proudest moment of any dad is when their children arrive in this world. The feeling upon laying eyes on that little being is beyond
description and truly life-changing.
I just experienced the second-proudest moment of any Canadian dad
for the first time, my boy cried his eyes out after his favourite
hockey team blew a big lead and lost.
My own eyes nearly welled up with pride as he looked at me fat,
juicy, cartoon-like teardrops falling from his cheeks like a winter's
night in Vancouver. All I could do was hug him to my chest, silently welcome him to the fraternity and try to explain why the team
he loves can make him feel like the world has ended.
My son, you see, is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and I explained his
particular allegiance will likely mean more tears than cheers.
(My first bout of bawling came on April 12, 1980. I was 11 and the
Buffalo Sabres had just eliminated the Canucks in the preliminary
round.
He's only eight, but my boy knows all about the Maple Laughs, as some
call them. He realizes they last won the Cup the year before I was
born. He understands he is in Canuck country here in Kamloops.
But still he wears the crisp, white and blue Maple Leaf jersey when
the squad hits the TV screen. Still he sleeps in his flannel white and
blue Maple Leaf pyjamas. Still the Maple Leaf logo (painted by his
mom) stares down from the bedroom wall. And, yes, still the flashing
GO LEAFS GO lamp is plugged in and flashing on his dresser.
It wasn't always so. When kids are younger, they gravitate toward
logos they like.
When he was four, my son was a Calgary Flame fan. Well, he was really
a Calgary Flame logo fan. Then he gravitated toward the Oilers. The
Canadiens intrigued him as he turned five, while his sixth birthday
saw him adopt the San Jose Sharks.Hence the impressive roster of
ever-shrinking NHL jerseys in his closet.
However, in the spring of 2008, about two months before his seventh
birthday, I laid down the law: On June 5, you will turn seven, I told my son.
You are becoming a big boy. You have played Peter Puck hockey and are
about to join minor hockey. It's time to pick a team for life.
He agreed and set about making the most important choice a boy will make. He did his research. He started with the logos. He checked the history of the teams online. He pulled out his atlas and globe and saw where each city was located in North America.
He chewed it over. He slept on it.
About a week before his seventh birthday, he had it narrowed down to
three teams. On June 5, 2008, he woke up and declared his allegiance to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Why? The logo had a lot to do with it, I suspect.
But he really liked their goalie, Vesa Toskala. He also liked how
Alexander Steen played. And he liked that the Leafs were Canadian.
I asked him if he was certain, reminding my boy there was no turning
back, no option to jump on the Canucks' bandwagon when the Leafs fall,
as they tend to do on an annual basis.
He was certain.
And so his love affair with the Maple Leafs began, as it did with hockey.
We don't think about it often, but hockey has given fans our own
language, phrases that mean nothing unless you are versed in the
lexicon of steel on ice.
When I speak with my son and mention a player gunning for a "Darryl
Sittler night," we both know we are referring to that magical game of
Feb. 7, 1976. When my son tells me a player got a "Gordie Howe hat
trick," we both know what was accomplished. When I refer to the
"Original Six," and he mentions the "Cup," (always cap C), there is no
need to elaborate. In the rinks of Kamloops, we all know what the
"Gretzky Rule" means.
And, when your team inexplicably blows a 3-0 lead at home on Hockey
Night In Canada and loses 5-3, we all know tears must be shed.
It's a Canadian rite of passage.
""People Will Probably Never Remember What You Said, And May Never Remember What You Did. However, People Will Always Remember How You Made Them Feel."