The Measure of A Man

I was email chatting with a friend from way back when recently. I remarked to her that knowing the kind of girl I was in high school, I never would have expected to marry the kind of man that I did. See, when I was in high school, I was super active in anything that kept me center stage. School plays, drama club, vocal performance groups. Quite aside from the fact that these all had a spotlight in common, they also shared one other thing. A serious lack of anything resembling athleticism in the traditional sense. Was it physically demanding to stand under spotlights so hot you felt like you were sitting on a metal rack near the top of the oven, with it set to broil? Absolutely. But it was simply not on the scale of running a gauntlet of defensive linemen, with a combined weight of 1000 pounds.

At the time, I thought I tended to date boys who were like me. Looking back at any relationship that actually mattered to me then, those boys all had something in common. Every single one of them either played on the football team or the baseball team. So with hindsight being 20/20, it really shouldn't come as any great shock to me that I married a man who played on his own high school football team, and has a deep, intense, abiding passion for all things organized sports.


But I'll let you in on a little secret, okay? This man? This man who has been my partner in crime and parenting for the last 17 years? This man is so much more than just a jock. Being an athlete and a coach is not all that defines him, much as he might think it does sometimes.


This is a man who adopted two rescue dogs because they looked at his wife with eyes that spoke directly to her soul.


This is a man who will still eat two servings of any meal I ruin, simply to avoid reminding me that I can't cook.


This is a man who, just because I saw a black widow hanging out on our air conditioner, sprays for spider and other creepy crawlies outside. At ten o'clock at night.

This is a man who gives up Saturday night college football for a family movie night, and lets his sons pick the movie.

This is a man with a wife who adores him, and two sons who are striving to emulate him in all things that matter. A man who is teaching by example, good example, what a husband and father should be. A man who gives up so much of his own life so that his children can look back at their life and remember that he was there for all of it. He doesn't miss games, he doesn't miss parent/teacher conferences, he doesn't miss random school ceremonies.

This is man who is so much more than just an athlete or a coach. He is just so much more. I just wanted to remind him of that.







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