He waved to his wife and baby son, and headed for the airport.Fourteen years later, he still hasn't come home.The son is a teenager now, about to start a new school. The wife does the chores that her husband used to do. She takes care of the lawn. She fills the gas tank. She is hardened by her tears but strengthened by her faith.
IT'S Christmas, you've seen "It's A Wonderful Life" a million times, so you know the concept: Jimmy Stewart keeps trying to get out of his rut, but in the end, winds up back in the same old place.Who knew that movie was really about our football team?Bah, humbug. The Lions keep telling us they are not the same old Lions. Then, in the most important games of the year, they go out and play like ...the same old Lions. Oh, sure, Sunday's loss took some extra effort. There are blown games, there are blown seasons and there are works of art.
Magic Johnson was on the phone, talking about the differences between living in Michigan and living in Los Angeles."The biggest difference?" he said. "Hospitality. Just saying hello."Saying hello? How hard is that?"Do you know that in L.A. you can live for 20 years in the same house and not know your next-door neighbor?" Magic said. "Can you imagine that happening in Michigan? You'd know the whole neighborhood."We offer that up as Defense Exhibit A in what has been, to this point, a one-way spit-fest between La-La Land and the Motor City.
Whenever I am asked to describe Detroiters, I always tell the same story.It was 16 years ago, and I had just arrived in the Motor City. I had not yet written a column for this newspaper. The only knowledge anyone here had of me was a small item in the Free Press announcing my hiring.I came to the office.I already had mail.A half-dozen letters. Handwritten to me. They could pretty much be summed up this way:Dear Mr. Albom:
The highlight of the Lions' 2002 season took place Sunday.It ended.Here in a town where football could be king, Detroit's court jesters closed this year's NFL campaign with interceptions, penalties and a pass defense that couldn't stop Frodo Baggins. Oh, and they lost, again, in the closing seconds, when the offense blew a two-point conversion, leaving only one question in Detroit this morning: What happens next? Are they really gonna keep president Matt Millen and coach Marty Mornhinweg?
Ah, parity.The idea that no team is too much better than another. The idea that almost all teams have a shot at the playoffs.It was on display Sunday afternoon at Ford Field. The Lions and Cardinals, both proud possessors of 4-7 records, were nonetheless in the thick of the playoff hunt. And so, before a crowd that needed a Dunkin' Donuts mascots race to be stirred into making noise, a battle was waged.
ORLANDO -- Ben Wallace leapt for a rolling rebound and rammed it through the rim. A minute later, he whacked a Gordan Giricek shot halfway to the Magic Kingdom. Two minutes later, Chauncey Billups, finishing the night of his NBA playoff life, banged home a three-pointer that silenced the crowd. And before you knew it, the Pistons were on their jet, waving good-bye to the city of Mickey and Minnie, with one question on their minds:What are you doing Sunday?
It could have all been different. Tonight, when the Red Wings and Hurricanes skate out for Game 3 in Raleigh, the first Stanley Cup final in North Carolina, and the building explodes and the Wings are roundly booed and the Hurricanes are cheered so loudly you'll need concrete in your ears, it could have all been reversed for Sergei Fedorov.He could have been on the side of the angels.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
