Love Does

The other night at a Texas Rangers game a man tumbled over the railing after catching a ball tossed to him by a player. The man, Shannon Stone, died from injuries in his fall as his 6-year old boy watched. The part of the story that absolutely hurts my heart is when the man, as he was loaded onto a stretcher, asked one of the players to keep an eye on his son.

Last night Dateline recapped the Casey Anthony case and I watched that bitch smile in court when she realized that her time in jail was almost done. The horrifying part of that story being that she had to know what happened to her child in the 31-day gap before she reported her missing.

Last week we went swimming over at my buddy's house. My buddy's young son was jumping in the pool from the diving board, running all around with swimmies attached to his arms and laughing. I caught my buddy's eye one time and saw undeniable love and appreciation in what he was seeing.

I knew the feeling.

Years and years ago I watched Jake hit a shot in a basketball game. Hell, just last year I watched Sam burn up the nets on a Saturday morning, and Matt hit a big 3-pointer to tie the score late in a game.

You know how it feels when your heart swells up like that?

And on Matt's graduation day I looked around the auditorium as we strained to see him walk the stage. The other Mom's and Dad's were feeling as proud and happy and as loving as we were.

It's a wonder that when there's that much love in a single room that the place just doesn't lift off into the air.

But it doesn't.

Because we don't focus in on that sort of love in life. Stories are not written about a team of people that raise over $20 grand for breast cancer. We don't know that Shannon Stone loved his boy so much that he was hardly ever spotted without him. A book written about the love of a brother couldn't possibly touch something about Harry freaking Potter.

Because love isn't as thrilling as chloroform searches and the smell of decay in the back of the car.

As we finished watching the show on Anthony last night I turned to my beautiful wife and said, "If she gets rich off this I'm going to puke every three minutes for the rest of my life."

Love, responsibility, family, pride and honesty doesn't come easy. Those attributes certainly don't sell many newspapers, but let me give you a little something to think about as you rail against the verdict handed down by that Florida courtroom, or as you mourn the loss of that young father, or as you consider the scene at another horrifying shooting such as the one that happened in Michigan this week.

It's really all about love.

Catch the eyes of a mother or a father as their son or daughter does something.

Spare parts and broken hearts shouldn't make the world spin. In a perfect world, love does.

Love does.

Comments

deafjeff said…
You know the best way to show your loved ones that you love them? Cuddling!
Cindy Lehnortt said…
Well put Cliff!

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