A Tradition Unlike any Other
There is no way of knowing how many times I’ve heard that phrase – a tradition unlike any other. I’ve heard it most of those times while watching the NCAA basketball tournament on television. For years, CBS has used that phrase to try to get their viewers to watch the next “big event” after that tournament concludes – The Masters golf tournament.
However, the tradition unlike any other I’m thinking about has nothing to do with golf. It has to do with a couple of guys watching the NCAA basketball tournament.
Somehow, while our son was still at home, the two of us got in the habit of spending some time together watching as much of the tournament as we could. We would stay up late on the Monday night of the championship game. We watched the game. We did not turn the television off as soon as the game was over. We waited for “One Shining Moment.” Finally, when it was over, we finally said, “Good night” and went to bed.
Last Monday night the tradition continued in the “amended” fashion that has become the norm in more recent years. Since he lives away from his mother and me and has his own family, we now watch the game “together while apart.” I told somebody last Monday that I was going to stay up and watch a game that I really did not care much about. When I was asked why I would do that, I had a one-word answer: “Adam.”
To say that our son loves college basketball would be one of the great understatements of all time. I’ve kiddingly told people that he comes alive when the season starts and goes back into a shell as soon as “One Shining Moment” is over.
I like college basketball, too, but, at this point in my life, I like sleep a lot better. Since Kentucky was not in the game, the only reason I was up past my bedtime last Monday night was because of that “tradition unlike any other” – the tradition of watching that final game with my son.
As I watched in Kentucky, I knew he was watching in Alabama. We even texted once in a while (but not much) during the game. When the last strains of “One Shining Moment” faded, we talked to each other, shared a couple of thoughts about the game, told each other, “Good night,” and went to bed. It was just like old times – sort of.
As I was lying in bed, I wondered how many more opportunities we will have to “share” this experience. I wondered if it means as much to him as it does to me
I wondered if it really is a tradition unlike any other? Could it be that other fathers and sons do exactly the same thing?
I don’t know the answer to all of those questions. I do know that it is a tradition unlike any other to me because it involves my son and me.
As I thought about all of this, I also wondered how many young fathers take the time to create their own “traditions unlike any other” with their sons and daughters. I remember older people telling me when I was a young father how fleeting the years are when children are at home.
Now that I’m one of those older people, I can testify to the fact that they could not have been more correct. I’m not sure how good I was at, as my mother-in-law used to say, “making memories.”
It is too late for me to have a do over as a parent. Whatever I did during the formative years of my children cannot be changed now.
Hopefully, it is not too late for me to join the chorus of older people as we remind younger parents about the brevity and importance of those years when children are at home. For that reason, I would encourage parents of any age to do what they can while they can to establish —
a tradition unlike any other.
Someday, you may do what I’ve been doing as I have typed these words. You may smile through your tears and be glad that you’ve been involved in something on which neither time nor distance can have an impact.
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