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If ever there was a quote from my past to carry me through difficult times it comes from Eugene Mastin. “You have to play with pain”, he would tell us. It was August and later autumn of 1977 and it was the one year I played football for the man. He drove us until we ached. He drove us until we cursed him. He drove us until we did things for him we wouldn’t even do for our fathers. We worked so hard on the field that my gut would churn and three days into practice we couldn’t walk on sore muscles. So instead he made us run. We lost just one game that year, defeated 14-7 on a long pass late in a game against our arch rivals. On the bus trip home there was nothing but silence. It followed his words before we left for home. He was so very proud we scrapped for everything we could get before the clock ran out. As I got off the bus when we got back to our school he looked at the expression on my face and gave me a hug.

There were parents believing he drove us beyond civilized behavior. They worried he was overly profane on the practice field and they worried about his volcanic temper. It only made us tighten the circle around him. Heck, he never did anything to me my parents hadn’t done. It’s probably why I flourished working for John Butler for six years from the late 1980s until he left for better pastures. He was a veteran of psychological operations in Vietnam and a Colonel at the local Air Guard Base used to see me and ask after “The General”. It was an appropriate nickname.

I had some tough times then and my dad told me to tough it out. John did the same. It taught me the value of a human being is his/her effort and production and not the paycheck.

Dad, Coach Mastin and John Butler were men of a much distant era. They watched suspiciously as the culture eroded around them. The definitions of hero and success were changing before I even tied my first shoulder pads. The new breed, the parents whining about a coach making men of us, took over the country. A feminized culture is fine for women, I suppose, but judging by the mistakes made by government and Wall Street it hasn’t been good for the men still making most of the decisions.

It’s gut check time. Dad, Mr. Mastin and John got me through every crisis in my life but I’m really worried now. I’ve been talking with merchants and builders and they tell me they’ve never seen anything quite like they’re seeing now. They’re spooked and their customers are running scared.

It annoys me that I can’t even think about things like marriage or settling into a nice home because some idiot in some boardroom believed the new definition of his manhood was ripping off clients, neighbors and relatives. And his clients and neighbors weren’t any better and from what I can see must still believe in The Tooth Fairy. Lordy, over the past decade I’ve lost two jobs, rebuilt a shattered left leg, lived in five places in 3 states and financed retirement for 2 lawyers fighting an ex-wife in court. I was at the gym today and some woman told me I was an inspiration for everyone else there. The fat middle aged guy can really move on the treadmill and stair stepper. He also biked to Washington last summer, for those of you forgetting, because he long ago learned you have to play with pain. You play through it. It’s persistent and constant and it doesn’t ease with age.

On Tuesday the nation’s first androgynous President took office. Or at least he appears that way for many of you believing he’s in touch with his feelings. Those are the people that voted for Mr. Obama. Let me tell you I’ve an entirely different impression forming. I don’t agree with the man on most issues relating to government’s role in my life and I abhor his views about infanticide, however. There are some old grainy films of The President playing basketball as a teenager and we’re all familiar with so many elements of his life story. This guy is as tough as nails. Those of us on the right underestimated him until he grabbed the big prize. He knows you have to play with pain. Are you ready for what’s ahead?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 pm and is filed under 2008 Presidential Race, Abortion, Democrats, Election, National Politics, Republicans, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.