So my father is turning 55 on Thursday.  I tend not to think of my family members ages all that much because they have always been a fixed number of years older than me and as I have grown and matured I have just kept thinking of the age difference and not the age itself.  My grandmother is in her mid 70’s now  but I still see her as being the same as she has always been, regardless of her health issues and her appearance.  My sister just turned 25, the same age my mom was when she gave birth to her but I still see her as my sister who is 2.5 years older even though she is a successful adult.  I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.  On the one hand it keeps me from forgetting where I came from and what they mean to me no matter how old the become and how much either of us change.  On the other hand it kinda keeps me from acknowledging that they are getting older and things do change over time.  I guess I’ll just have to see how that works out for me.

Anywho, as I said, it’s my dad’s birthday.  My dad and I have a funny relationship as most fathers and son’s do.  He’s the cheerleader of the family.  Anything and everything I have ever done he has been right there to congratulate me and tell me how proud and impressed he is.  He’s gone through more physical issues over the last 10 years then I care to catalog but needless to say it has made me proud and impressed to know that he wakes up every day, most of the time in severe pain, and faced the world with a smile on his face and a “what can you do but suck it up and live your life” attitude.  Like everyone he has his traits that drive me up a wall with frustration but who doesn’t.

When I went through my bout of depression and ever since I have had a hard time remembering things.  The memories aren’t gone forever, just locked up under a few layers of fog.  It takes something, someone talking about an event, seeing something on tv, finding something while cleaning up, to act as a catalyst to recall things now.  When it comes to my childhood, a big one was the Celtics this season.  Thanks to their amazing performance, there was a number of replays of old celtics clips.  There were entire shows dedicated to the Lakers-Celtics rivalries.  One of the biggest for me was after game 7 of the Cavs-Celtics series.  All the talk about Bird vs Dominique in the ‘88 conference finals made me think about how much I loved basketball when I was younger.  And from that I was reminded why I loved basketball so much.  I remember watching Celtics games on weekends with my dad.  I remember watching the playoffs every year the Bulls won with my dad.  I remember every Pacers-Knicks game, watching my dad cheer on Reggie Miller and cursing out Jon Starks.

The thing I remember most to this day is how he would talk about Larry Bird.  He would talk about him like he was above and beyond anyone else to ever play the game.  He was in arguably one of the best to ever play the game but to hear my dad talk about him you would think he invented the 3pt shot.  I think I have seen just about every documentary every done on him.  I remember watching his retirement ceremony on tv with him.  The Wheaties box with him on the front and the Sports Illustrated cover issue are still in my parents house somewhere.  I could probably go on for days about how he loved to talk about him and watch replays of classic Bird games.  For father’s day this year I got him the DVD of the reissue of the Living Legend documentary he had on tape.  I didn’t get it for him because I thought he really wanted it but because I knew that he would love to be able to watch the old games that were on the bonus disk.  I got it for him because it gave us an excuse to sit down and watch it together and talk about how good he really was.  It was as much for him as it was for me.  It was an excuse to sit down and spend time together at a point in our lives where there isn’t much time for that anymore.  We have less and less to talk about as I grow up and apart from my family.  It was nice to have something else take on the role of the conversation starter.

What i’d like anyone to get out of all this is that there are people, places, and things that taken on a much bigger meaning in our lives than who,what, and where they intended.  When you think of Friendly’s you might think about going there with your family when you were little cuz thats where you used to go after every little league game.  Everytime you look at the old faded chair you might think about how your grandmother used to sit in it every christmas and complain about how cold it was.  For me it’s a basketball player from French Lick, Indiana.  These are the things you should think of when you start to get that woe is me attitude.  Take 5 minutes and laugh at the ugly figurine sitting on your desk that your aunt got you and how it makes you think about all the terrible gifts you got from well intentioned family members over the years.  Give her a call and let her know you still have it.  People need to let others know from time to time that these seemingly insignificant objects and moments are symbols for feelings that go a lot deeper.  The simple acknoledgement of this can make someones entire week.

One of the reasons I took the time to write this was when someone was talking about how they got choked up listening to Go Radio singer/former Mayday Parade singer/Ginger extrodinare Jason Lancaster sing a song he wrote about his father.  It reminded me how choked up I get when I think back on all the times we spent watching sports together when I was a kid and how, eventhough my childhood had its ups and downs, I can look back on those times and think I didn’t have a care in the world because I was laughing and having a good time with my dad and no matter what happens, no one can take those memories from me.  I will always be able to think back to those times and be happy, even if its just for a few seconds.  It’s one of the few things in life that doesn’t cost a thing and can be used over and over again.  So don’t take them for granted and don’t take the people in them for granted.  They won’t be here forever and neither will you.