Cal Ripken did it during his baseball Hall-of-Fame speech Sunday:
Then, Ripken pulled out a flower, and said, "Ryan, I might need a little help transporting this." At that moment, his son pulled the same type of flower out of his jacket and handed it to his mother, again shown to fans on the giant screens so everyone knew what was happening.
(later, Ripken said)..."I just came up with the idea, I didn't think I could say the words. When I proposed, I made a sign. I made it out of Christmas lights, and it said, 'Will you marry me?' I didn't think I could say the words to do that, either. I thought of Ryan. We both had sport coats on; it would make for a nice little moment. I had the idea, and the only question was whether I'd be able to get through it, and we did."
Oh, and there must have been a reason why so many people were there -- something to do with Doing It the 'Right Way':
There was never a story about Ripken that involved drugs, alcohol, extramarital affairs, boorish behavior, gambling, conceit or anything else that would discredit Ripken, the game, the city of Baltimore, the Orioles, or disgrace his family.
Do we teach, encourage and practice "the right way" in our personal lives and relationships, schools, politics, or anything else? We do not. That would require imposing a moral code, which is less acceptable than the immorality that inevitably fills a culture trapped in a moral vacuum.
Instead...We crave the immediate over the eternal, the base over the noble, the cheap over the valuable and the tawdry over the wholesome. And then we are surprised when we get fewer Gwynns and Ripkens and more Bonds, Vicks, Lohans and Spears.
Comments