I Once Saw a Strong Man Cry

My dad isn't what you would call an "open guy." It's not that we don't talk very much, we talk a lot, but he never seems to share with you his true thoughts. He'll tell you if he thinks your idea is stupid, wrong, retarded, etc., but it's not often he'll tell you what he's feeling.

Before yesterday, I had seen my dad cry once in my life. He was telling me how proud he was of me for all the things I accomplished in high school with my grades and especially with baseball and football. It was quite an emotional experience because I had never seen my dad cry in my life. Yesterday, I witnessed it again, only this time was much different.

My dad stayed home from work yesterday because he was sick. When I got home, we started talking about how bad the Angels suck, Mike Soscia, and things like that. I brought up with him that I've been listening to a lot of Toby Keith this week, and that he makes country music cool. I told him how I liked the song "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith and explained some of the background on the song. My dad new the song then did something I never would have expected. He brought up the song "God Bless the USA" and how after 9/11, he sat in front of the house and played that song while he lit two candles for those that had died. He began choking up. It took me a second to realize what was going on. I learned a lot about my dad in those next few minutes. I learned how much he loves this family, how much he loves this country, and how much he prides himself in his hard work and the sacrifices he makes so that we can have a happy life. I may not agree with everything he said, but everything he said was very rational yet emotional.

It was then that I realized everything my father has ever done has been for this family. He may not have served in the war, but he is definitely a soldier trying to make our world a better place.

He told me, "Son, you'll never know the feeling until you have a family of your own someday."

I may not nearly be as patriotic or as family-centered as a lot of people, but I sure as hell love both, and if I had to make the decision whether to defend them or not, I would choose to fight for my nation and family. Until now, I've been very much against my friends and people I know joining the military just because they don't think they've got a good thing going on here. To me that's still not a good reason, but these people are making the choices to fight, and even die, for me and this nation, and the least I can do is support them.

This is a really weird blog post, but it was something that I wanted to write down so that I can remember it someday. The second time I ever saw the strongest person in my life cry.