We say guys can cry, sure, but it better not be a girlie, emotional, out-of control cry. But the more you fight it, the more you feel it build up, like that moment of nausea when you know there's no turning back. threatening to violate guy-code rule #1 -- no blubbering! God forbid. And even when we do it right, we feel like we should hide it. You know, go die in the bushes like a sick elephant.
I'm a sucker for father-son stories. Flipping around TV, "October Sky" was on and for some reason I got hooked and stayed with it. I tried so hard to not tear up when Homer's dad showed up at the end to finally see one of his son's rocket launches. And Homer has his dad push the launch button (sniff) and then as they watch the rocket soar and soar, dad puts his arm around Homer's shoulder (turn head away from wife, slooooowly sniff so she doesn't notice). OK! Time to walk the dog!
They opened the new Yankee Stadium this month, without Thurman Munson's old locker. They put it in a museum. That locker stayed empty in the clubhouse, unused, for thirty years after he died. They just never assigned it to anybody. His son was little when it happened and never knew his dad. There was a moment last fall after the last game ever at the old stadium where grown-up Michael visits the locker, stands right where his dad's feet used to stand, looks into the same mirror his dad looked into, sees his own reflection where his dad saw his, and talks and says goodbye to his dad for fifteen minutes. Now, that'll make a guy look for a bush somewhere.
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