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sports
Most people who know us know about out love for the game of hockey. I wouldn’t say it’s an obsession with our family; we just really enjoy watching hockey games. We even subscribe to DirecTV’s NHL Center Ice every year so we can watch as many hockey games as possible. During the play-off season, especially the closer we get to the Stanley Cup finals, you can pretty well bet that we’re at home watching the games if it’s at all possible for us to do so. If not, we’ve set the TiVo to record it so we can watch when we get home!
This year the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. They beat the Edmonton Oilers in the 7th game of a best-of-seven series. It was a very good play-off and finals run this year. Two years ago (they didn’t play last year, 2004-2005, because of a lock-out), I didn’t really enjoy the play-offs all that much. And I’m not a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, so I wasn’t really all that excited about the finals, either. This year there was a lot of action in the play-offs leading up to the finals. It was a good play-off year.
It has only been a few weeks, but I miss watching hockey already. When we were in Alaska we were at the mercy of ESPN and NBC as far as hockey watching was concerned. We couldn’t get NHL Center Ice up there ~ a small satellite dish would’ve been a waste of time. But, since we were in the lower 48 for the entire hockey season this time, we watched a lot of games.
Watching hockey with my all-male family has been a learning experience for me. I was a cheerleader when I was younger (MUCH younger), and my parents watched football games when I was growing up, so I had some exposure to sports. I also dated a guy in high school who was a bit of a jock. He wrestled and played football during the school year, then every summer he would play baseball (usually at the peril of our dating!). I ended up married to that guy, even though he did choose baseball over me every summer (dumbie me for making him choose!). So, sports have been at least a small part of my life for as long as I can remember. But watching a hockey game with three testosterone-laden males is different than cheering from the sidelines or hanging out with your parents.
I’ve learned that guys see the world and relationships much differently than girls do. It’s the old beat-the-snot-out-of-each-other-then-shake-hands-and-go-have-a-beer-together mentality that stumps me. Girls would never do that. Once we cat-fight, man, it’s over and the war has begun. I’m not sure I will ever understand how or why guys can beat each other up then be best friends, but I’ve come to realize that they can, and that I don’t understand it. That makes it a little easier to deal with.
My sons are a good example. They are a different as night and day. They have fought, disagreed, picked on and tattle-taled on each other since the day Son#2 was born. Now that they’re 16 and 13, things haven’t really changed much. There’s not as much direct tattle-taling going on ~ they find other, less direct ways to let me know exactly what the other has done that he should get in trouble for. BUT, if you were to threaten either one of them, the other would be there in a heartbeat backing him up. I’ve seen it happen. And it amazes me every time. It also makes me smile.
It makes me smile because it brings hope to that place inside of me that as a mom wants to see her sons become the best of friends. To be honest, with my two I wasn’t sure that would really ever happen. But this summer I’ve seen a lot of bonding going on between the two of them.
Son#1 will leave in about a month for a town about an hour and a half from where we live to attend a math and science high school. It’s a residential high school, but the students can go home every weekend, and the school purposefully shuts down for a 3- or 4-day weekend at least once a month. I don’t know if it’s simply that my sons are getting older and are developing a little more patience with each other, or if somewhere deep down inside they’ve realized they only have a few more weeks to be together every day. Ever since Son#1 got his driver’s license they’ve been able to go out and do things together. They’ll go to a local fast-food restaurant for lunch then go catch a movie. Or go play paintball. Or go rollerskating, to the park, to the pool, to the store ~ whatever, wherever~ and they’re doing it together!
As strange as it may sound, I think the fact that we all (including Mom) watch sports together has made a difference in how my sons have grown and matured. It has taught them that doing things together, as a family, is important, and that doing things together also cuts across gender lines. They’ve seen grown men punch, claw, scratch and tackle one another, but when the game is over, they all shake hands and move on. They’ve seen examples of playing through pain, dedication to others (team), selflessness (teamwork), and appreciation for an opponent who does an outstanding job. They’ve seen examples of fair play and dirty play ~ and they have learned that there are always consequences when you break the rules.
I could go on and on about “lessons we’ve learned from watching sports together,” but you get the idea. I’m not sure who has learned more; me or my sons. There certainly have been a lot of lessons I’ve learned from watching the male of our species in combative play. Men always claim they’ll never understand women. But guys, there are times when you’re just as mysterious to us as we are to you. That’s probably something my sons have learned while watching sports with me; sometimes girls just don’t get it. And that’s ok~ I remind them that someday they’ll have a wife, and if they’re lucky she’ll be as interested in sports as I am. Because it brings us all together ~ just ask that jock I married.
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