On Six Year Old Friday Nights

Last night, my wife and I caught "Friday Night Lights" at the local cinema. I sat there for almost two hours in deep culture shock. High school kid's SAT scores are all the talk of the town up here, so no one else in the theater could understand the movie like I could. Everytime some idiot would tell one of those kids that high school football "was all you got, after that you just have the memories and nothing else to hope for", I flashed back to the faces of the people who once told me that. Man, how crippling that could have been. Saying that to an 18-year old should be a capital offense. But, as is often the case, the coach was the one guy in town with the proper perspective. Billy Bob Thornton nailed the mythic figure of "high school football coach". Winning football games is not much different than losing, it just changes the way people treat you. The only thing that really counts is that you held nothing back for your team.

I laughed, I cried, I got all nostalgic. Then I came home and went to bed. Good movie, great book, but best of all are the six year old memories without all the bruising.