Change in direction

After a couple of conversations this past week, I've decided to not make this a sports-only blog.  That is definitely still going to be a major area of concentration, but sometimes I feel like writing something that isn't sports related, won't get run in the paper, but doesn't fit on a sports blog.

So that title is just quasi-official now.

Anywho, while I know most people who follow this read my paper posts anyways, I'll begin my first non-sports post by reposting my column that ran in the Copperas Cove Herald a few days back.  However, I'm gonna post my original version, if nothing else I thought the ending was better then what printed.

Without further ado...

With the birth of my son looming, I find myself beginning to prepare little things for his arrival to ensure his greatness as a man.  

I began with some simple things, like ordering him a dinosaur taxonomy poster I had as a child.  This will hopefully instill in him the same love of dinosaurs that I still have today.  The next step is making sure that his love of Transformers is based on the 1984 cartoon and not the horribly mangled childhood memories that Michael Bay put on the big screen.

But among these little things, I realized I had a major issue I needed to address.

I need a cardboard cutout in my sons room of someone whom he can look up to, a hero for him.

As of right now, I have it narrowed down to three paragons of manliness, three men who are an Adonis in their own right.  Three men that anyone can grow up to emulate and be proud of themselves.

Three men that do not exist.

In no particular order, the life size cardboard cutout I want to get for my son is going to be either Ron Burgundy from Anchorman, Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, or Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.

You know, important people.

I originally started the process of finding this role model (and yes, role model) as a joke, but I began to seriously think about it and I asked myself “Who would I really want my son to be like?”

Role model #1

We’ll start with Ron Burgundy.  He’s classy, confident, and loves animals.  However, he litters, handles tragedy poorly, and womanizes.  Burgundy will more than likely bear the most physical similarities with my son, as I am 6’4” and Will Ferrell is 6’3”.  He has a successful career in sunny San Diego, and also like me, has a close knit group of die hard friends who will do anything for him – including fighting a bear.

Role model #2

Next we have Jack Donaghy.  An absolute paragon of the business world, smoothness doesn’t even touch his ability with the fairer sex.  His ability to read people is astounding, and he just oozes success.  However, he is absolutely ruthless in any endeavor he approaches, which can be good to an extent, but not to the degree he carries it.  He seldom makes lasting friendships, and when he does they are with… odd people.  He is deeply entrenched in his own personal belief and ethos, and doesn’t yield it when others confront him about it.  While I disagree with his personal ethos, holding fast to what you believe is a trait I find very admirable.

Role model #3

Finally we have Ron Swanson.  Ron Swanson is a government employee who hates the government.  But everything else about him is pure man.  He hunts and fishes, works with woods, and appreciates a good painting of a boat.  He has “Swanson Pyramid of Greatness” with such groups on it as “Welfare Avoidance,” “Cow Protein,” and above all else, “Honor – if you need it defined, you don’t have it.”  He can be extremely uncompromising and stuck in his ways, even when they greatly hinder himself and those around him.  He firmly believes in himself, and knows that when something goes wrong he can always count on himself.  And he has a landmine on his desk.

These men, these manly men are who I am looking to for guidance.  These are the men I want my son to look up to and say “Yes, this is right, I will do as they do.”

Odds are my wife will kill this idea before I get it off of the ground.  Which I suppose means my son will have to do what I had to do as a kid, and look up who I had to look up to.  The most manly of men, someone who wasn’t afraid to lay down the law, but was always there when you needed him, someone who no matter how bad things got was always right there, someone who had no problem driving me around at 2 AM in his old Chevy pickup so I could fall back asleep.

Like me, I want my son to look up to his father and be just like him.

I guess this guy will have to do.

I think there's a resemblance here.