Friday Night Game...

This weekend was a great weekend to be together as a family. Syracuse has a new high school that is less than three minutes from our house. With the new school comes local football and I am pumped about that, it’s been years since I attended a high school football game. We are the Syracuse Titans and our colors are similar to BYU colors, so Coleson and I are definitely on board. After I got home from work on Friday, Summer suggested that Coleson and I go to the football game, and despite the expected inclement weather we thought it was a great idea. Coleson bundled up and made sure that he had on his BYU football hat (football and BYU are inseparable in Coleson’s mind). Prior to our departure we feasted upon homemade pizza, that was made by Summer “expertly” throwing the dough, Coleson grating the cheese and arranging the pepperonis, and me dicing our garden tomatoes and peppers (Ammon gave the occasional shout out from the living room). We arrived at the game shortly after kickoff and quickly found a nice open spot on the home bleachers. To ward off the cold and rain (and to keep our “patooties” dry as Coleson would say) we sat on the thick stadium blanket that Debbie made for Summer back in her college days and covered our legs with another stadium blanket from work. With Syracuse being a new high school, the most experienced players on the team are juniors, there are no seniors even attending the school for the first year. Based upon this skill level, the local crowd cheers wildly over any points scored by the Titans despite the poor tally of those points in comparison to the opposing team. Coleson couldn’t stop asking questions, “Who throws the flag; who picks up the flag after it has been thrown; which team is ours; did we just score; why are the football players so small (I almost asked the same question when I saw several of them, it’s amazing how small a high school player is now that I’m “all grown up.”) My favorite question of the game came early on when Coleson leaned in close and quietly asked, “Should I yell, Go Syracuse!” We both agreed that was a good idea and we started getting the crowd going with a few robust yells of “Go Syracuse!” The highlight of the night came near the beginning of the third quarter. Let me paint the picture a little more clearly, we had been rained on most of the night, we were freezing (me moreso than Coleson, I made sure he had the lion share of the blankets), and our team was being badly beaten. Coleson proceeded to go down a list of the fun things we did that night. “Dad, we ate homemade pizza with pepperonis, we had bubble gum, we ate a giant licorice rope, and we are at the football game.” Coleson concluded his summary with the following statement, “Dad, this is the best night ever.” I was one happy Dad. The cold finally got to Coleson just before the third quarter ended and we headed for home. At home Coleson snuggled up with Mom and the couch, drank hot chocolate, and quickly fell asleep. That’s another score for the home team.

Conference was memorable in many different ways, but I wanted to share with you one thought about an especially touching part from my point of view. Elder Wirthlin was giving an inspiring talk on love, when unexpectedly about halfway through the talk he started visibly shaking. The shaking became more severe, but it was apparent that Elder Wirthlin was not the type of man to let a physical condition stop him from delivering his message. I said a quick prayer, like I’m sure thousands of others did, that Elder Wirthlin would be able to convey and complete the message that he had obviously put so much prayer and preparation into. At the point where the shaking became so severe that I feared he might collapse, Elder Nelson (the former experienced physician) quietly appeared at his side and firmly put his arms on either side of Elder Wirthlin and held him steady. Nothing was verbally said between the two and Elder Wirthlin continued with his talk. Though the shaking continued, we knew that Elder Wirthlin would be able to successfully complete his message with Elder Nelson’s firm hold. As I stated earlier, the talk on love was inspiring, and the actions of Elder Nelson only drove the spiritual message home more deeply (this one is an I-pod download). At the end of his talk Elder Wirthlin closed with a fervent Amen. But the microphone clearly picked up two other words after his closing Amen that were not meant for the audience and that I have rarely heard more poignantly and sincere. As he stepped away from the podium Elder Wirthlin firmly said “Thank you,” to Elder Nelson. Elder Nelson then walked Elder Wirthlin into the dimmed lights and to his seat. Nothing more was said, and the sermon on love was again taught most movingly in both word and deed.