JUST REGULAR GUYS
December 2001
It was maybe thirty minutes after the seventh game of the "Series" ended and Elizabeth and I were watching the news as we wound down from all the excitement of that finish, and I began to think about how incredibly talented the men on both those teams were. Consummate professionals, every one of them, the best of the best is what it had all been aboutand it all came down to the absolute best relief pitcher anybody has, an "ice man" who nobody could possibly hit, against a bunch of guys who would not give up.
All seven games had been like that, masters of the game go full tilt after the prize. There hasn't been anything like that going on in baseball for a long, long time. And in the end they honored one another, acknowledging that each team was the best of the best.
Earlier that same Sunday, there was manifested another example of male determination in an NFL match up echoing the "old days" of professional football, the Bears played the Browns and, with only 28 seconds to go, the Bears were down 21-14 and the Browns were going to receive the kick off. After the reception it was expected that the Browns would do the usual thing and run the clock out and the game would be over. But the Bears still weren't giving up. They executed an on-side kick perfectly, just the way they had practiced it a hundred times, and regained possession. Moments later a "Hail Mary" pass lofted to the end zone bounced crazily off the outstretched fingers of a receiver and then the grasping hands of a defender and then into the arms of a desperate Bear diving headfirst into the ground to get it..and the game was tied.
The Bears won it in overtime for the second week in a row when the same charging line backer who had done it the week before knocked the ball out of the opposing quarterbacks hands just as he was about to throw, grabbed it as it tumbled in the air, and ran it in for a touchdown.
And a few weeks before that, a group of men in an airplane said "Enough!" and stopped it from crashing into the symbol of our Democracy, the Capital Building. They sacrificed their lives and forced it into the ground in Pennsylvania.
A few days later two NHL teams, one from Philadelphia and the other from New York, agreed to call the scheduled game, it just didn't seem appropriate to play it. Suited up and on the ice, they shook hands and skated off. The fans rose and applauded.
Decades before that, another group of men fought their way to the summit of a hill and there raised a flag which has been a symbol of courage and heroism ever since. And a few weeks ago another group reminded us of the timeless importance of that Iwo Jima flag by recreating that scene atop the ruins and carnage of the World Trade Centers.
And a few years ago another man fought off the ravages of cancer and determined to win the worlds biggest bike race. And Lance Armstrong pulled it off. Twice.
Decades before that a man carried his cello to a small city square and, each day, during a lull in the senseless killing of his fellow citizens, played Bach for peace and hope and sanity in Beirut.
In the 60's, two men wrote a song about racism that made people think about it long before it was fashionable to confront the issue. The Georgia State Legislature censured Rogers and Hammerstein calling them "subversive" when they wrote "You have to be carefully taught." for South Pacific. They easily could have left the piece out; but they wouldn't. They didn't do it for the money.
And not long ago a man coming home from grocery shopping for his family saw something happening he could not countenance. Three tanks were rumbling into a city square toward a crowd of unarmed demonstrators. He walked into the street and stood in front of the lead tank and they ground to a halt. The unseen driver and tank commander tried to maneuver left, then right. But the man would not leave. He would not abandon principle. The men inside did not try to run him down. They knew he stood for something more powerful than brute force.
History doesn't record what happened to him as a result, this man whose original purpose suddenly broadened to the feeding of the greater Family of Man, but we know that his decision to stand for something bigger than he has not died.
All of these images, these men determined and courageous in the face of seemingly hopeless odds, ranging from the relative triviality of sporting events, through deadly war and civil murder, all the way to a moment in a failed revolution, these are a few selective images of men which will long outlast the distorted pictures of us painted by popular culture as bumbling idiots, "sexist pigs", stupid fathers, etc and arching all the way to the vicious anti-male propaganda spread by those who claim that males are by nature, war mongers and rapists. Even these can and will be swept away by the truths manifested by these men, a few who posses special talents and strength, but most of whom who are men just like the rest of us. Men who move through their days just doing what needs doing. Everyday heroes of small events.
Heroes..every one.
Dick Prosapio ©2001
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Web site authored by James R. Bracewell
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Revised:09 Nov 2004
A continuing series of stories & commentary by Coyote.
Dick Prosapio aka, Coyote is a member of the TMC Advisory Council, ceremonialist, psycho- For more info about Dick Prosapio, visit his web-site, Spirit/ Earth Path
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