I suppose for me, there’s not many. Hang around me and you’ll
see all those things. Maybe the question should be, what would most people be
surprised to know about you.
The hidden gem there is probably I’m a closet romantic. My
favorite movies are those romances that highlight love in all its forms and
ways. Meet Joe Black, Love Actually, Sweet Home Alabama, … Even more are the
sports movies, the comeback stories, the inspirational moments. The Legend of
Bagger Vance, Breaking Away, The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, …
Some of this certainly is romance born of the Victorian era,
with courting and all the goodness that flows. For me it’s something else
though.
My romanticism has flavors of love most certainly. Two
people who love each other where everyone feels it as well. Where there’s
sweetness and connection and a smile that lives around them. I believe in it. I
suppose there’s some idealism floating amongst my visions – and still I’m
completely a realist that knows that a human love is like a roller coaster that
chugs uphill sometimes pulled along by life itself. Other times it looking out
from the tops, or twirling and twisting in loops and circles. It’s all there.
And I believe in a love that’s just love, born of another place, something
words are useless to illustrate.
It’s also about our ordinariness, and the ability for each
of us to be our own hero, our own guide. Sports isn’t about the game or who
wins or loses – but that you play, that you play all out with everything you
have – heart, soul, ability (or not!), passion. It’s how you play. I love the ending of
Seven Days in Utopia where the main character of the story is on the 18th
hole of the final round of a major golf tournament. If he makes the putt he
wins the tournament. And so he putts and the camera follows the ball … you
never see if the ball goes in the cup or not. It doesn’t matter – it’s how he
played the game, how he lived life.
And one of my favorite quotes from Bull Durham with Kevin Costner
as Crash Davis:
“Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small
of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the
novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey
Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment
outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot,
soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than
Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last
three days.”
Yes, I believe. I believe in the soul, I believe in love. I
believe in giving it everything I have, in every moment. I believe in the
absolute wonder and awe and beauty that’s life. I believe … there’s more no
doubt, just ask!
Surprised?
