Among the many heights to which I aspire secure in the knowledge I shall never attain it is Pat Forde's ability to write, which craft he presently practices at Sports Illustrated.
Forde was in Chicago, Illinois earlier this week covering the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. He was among the small number of people who had been permitted access to the arena to watch the games and was present when the kids from Rutgers and Michigan came out onto the floor for pre-game warm-ups...for a game that never was played. His piece on what it was like to be present when the decision to not simply postpone the Rutgers/Michigan game but to cancel the tournament itself, which piece originally appeared on si.com on March 12 is, unquestionably, a worthwhile read.
Yet, it is not even close to being the best piece of writing Forde produced on that day. He and his wife have three kids. Their middle child, Clayton, is a senior at the University of Georgia. He is a member of the Bulldogs' swim team. Clayton had already posted the qualifying time he needed to assure he would compete in his event, the 400 IM, at the NCAA Championships, which were scheduled for Indianapolis, Indiana at the end of March. Now, he shall not. The competition for which he had qualified shall not take place. Not at March's end. Not ever.
Pat Forde's piece, about his son and the thousands of other similarly-situated college seniors whose countdown clock to the end of this particularly important part of their lives suddenly and irrevocably was wound down all at once without ever permitting any of them to have a definitive final moment, is simply masterful. I cannot commend it to your attention heartily enough. His description of his son as being "smart but stoic" immediately brought a picture of Rob's face to my mind's eye. It also brought a tear or two.
The great lie we tell ourselves as parents is that we shall protect our children from all dangers, from all hardships, and from all of life's great inequities. It is a well-intended lie. But it is a lie just the same. We have no better chance of sparing them life's hardships than our parents had doing so for us. Our failure is not tied to a lack of effort.
It is simply life's way. Its hardships are among its lessons. We need to learn them in order to get as much as we can out of life...
...especially the ones from which we can extract no joy.
-AK
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