A Random Act of Kindness in a Savage Part of the Land

As some of you are aware, I was fortunate enough to embark on an unusual seven-day sports odyssey in late August. Over a span of seven days, I went to three different "major" sporting events (using the phrase liberally) in three different states. Two were for work, in different cities, and on somebody else's dime. These events were: Panthers at Jets in an NFL exhibition game on Sunday August 26th, Cardinals at Pirates on Wednesday August 29th and Alabama vs. Michigan in Dallas on Saturday September 1st.

As a fan of all live sports, especially those in new stadiums, I was pretty excited for these events. In retrospect, it turned out to be a less dynamic odyssey than expected. I left the exhibition game before halftime because my 5 y/o and 3 y/o boys were starting to fall apart from the 8 PM start time. I saw little of the Pirates game because we were parked at the bar in the stadium, feeding free booze to a disgruntled group of guys who reconcile working in Pittsburgh by getting violently wasted and being very appreciative that folks come to visit them in that town. I did see a lot of a pretty bad football game in Dallas, but that experience was more tied into soaking in my first major college football game (I'm excluding Rutgers-Louisville), seeing Jerry Jones' impressive palace in Arlington, and pondering what life would have been like had I attended an SEC school for college.

So not any "memories of a lifetime" from this sojourn. Except one. As I was walking into MetLife stadium before the Jets game, a young Latina woman ran up to me. She told me she randomly took a picture of me and my sons on her cell phone because she thought it would be a cool shot. She thought it turned out well and wanted to send it to me. Her boyfriend was with her and they both were genuinely happy to do this. I note that this is extremely abnormal behavior in East Rutherford. So I gave the woman my cell phone and two minutes later, a photo appeared. It turned out that I did have a memory of a lifetime after all.

The G:TB Parenting Chronicles

We don't often get serious in this space, but on occasion we find it important to change the tone, to put down our noisemakers and silly toys and provide sober commentary on the issues of the day. Many in the G:TB are parents, or will soon be. As ostensibly upstanding members of our various communities, the lessons we impart upon our children are vital, both to their wellbeing and to the ways in which they engage the world.

In this the first installment of our Parenting Chronicles (and given our editorial strategy, I'm quite certain there will be at least 1-3 more installments), we bring you a lesson in fatherly communication. The image below depicts a text exchange I had with my wife just last evening. My wife's texts are in white, mine in blue. Don't let your enjoyment cloud the obvious and important takeaway: