To everything...turn, turn, turn...there is a season...turn, turn, turn.... Can you hear the music playing in your mind? I sure can...It's all so true you know? Everything has a season and around here the season of choice is football season. I think it's only natural that as children we are immersed in the passions of our parents. At my house growing up it was shopping with my Mother and music lessons and pageants. With my Dad it was shooting hoops and batting cages. Both of my parents are highly educated educators so we spent lots of time at the public library in the summer and taking trips as a family to places like St. Augustine and Washington D.C. My parents did it all. And it was really quite amazing. It gave my sister Amanda, and me the time and opportunities to choose our own destiny, pick our own interests and find our own hobbies.
In Ben's house the mood was a little different. You see, bred into Ben and his older Brother, Andy, was not the natural, child-like quest for hobbies...oh no people...It was football. They live it, eat it, breathe it. On EASTER WEEKEND Ben and Andy will sit and watch an Ohio State game from 2001 as if it's LIVE!!!! Ben and Andy talk about helmet color, sock choices, sideline passes and game tape like it's a matter of life and death.
This is no "love for football"
This. Is. A. Lifestyle.
Ben and Andy are blessed with a father whose love for football is very strong. Ben's Dad was the Kentucky state Referee of the year in 2009. It's a fabulous honor and something of which to be very proud. He is a well respected expert of the game and it's nice to know that Coach Faust (Ben) has been trained for 20+ years but such a fine example of football at its best. So I guess I could say that Ben and Andy did have their parents influence but I don't really think they were dipped into their parents interests, I'm pretty sure they were both held under the football holy-water until they were within an inch of their lives and then brought up for air only after they had been so deprived of oxygen that they could see nothing but football....it gives new meaning to the phrase, "brainwashing." You know I shouldn't give them such a hard time, B's passion for excellence is a huge reason I fell in love with him. Before Ben I had never met anyone else who could get really fired up over something they really cared about in a matter of seconds....not like Ben does anyway.
He loves football for all the right reasons; the pusuit of excellence, the commitment and intergrity it takes to survive 2-a-days in August heat, the mental and physical toughness that men find in themselves when they play, and most of all, the pride and understanding that young men experience whether their band of brothers has succeeded in win or not. Football is timeless, it is something one never forgets and when coached correctly, it can mold a boy into the man you were born to be. It is so important for strong, steady and smart men like Ben to coach, they are the excellent examples to boys who, otherwise, will never meet a man who loves and respects his girlfriend or wife, a man who does what is right even when noone is watching and a man who never says die. Ben is the finest example of a coach. And a really fine man.
The first thing I said to Ben this morning was "Happy Game Day, Coach!" and he glowed. He simply lit up. I took this moment to remind him that he needs to look like that on our wedding day and the day our children are born ;-)
Love and Peace to you all on this cool Kentucky weekend!
*Rafferty's Bowl is tonight at 8pm at the WKU stadium. The Purples play some small Kentucky school I've never heard of. BUT I will be there, selling programs and wearing Purple! And most of all, Cheering on the Coach in HIS season.
