Two Guys Visit Yankee Stadium: A Tale of Loss and Friendship - New York Times
Sunday Morning (okay, afternoon...) tearjerker.
Maybe it's just good (manipulative) writing, (or maybe my body goes through a physical change on Sunday mornings that makes me sappier than usual) but this story about a guy who asked for and got a bunch of free stuff for his friend moved me.
I think it was this bit right here:
I know it's a kitschy, feel-good story, the kind that shamelessly panders to our emotions, and reinforces the lies that our system is fair, and good people are rewarded, and I know that this sweet event won't change the world, it probably won't even change a life (a bat with Don Mattingly's name on it isn't going to help Mr. Sayre find his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or help him feel useful in a world where our worth is determined by our jobs), but...“We’re going to Yankee Stadium,” Mr. McGuire said on Wednesday. “Michael doesn’t know it yet, but he is going to meet his idol, Don Mattingly.”
For Mr. McGuire it will be an important outing at Yankee Stadium, but for his friend, it will be much more.
Mr. Sayre has congenital glaucoma, which has left him blind in his right eye and in danger of losing his eyesight altogether. Their road trip to the Bronx began in March with a letter that Mr. McGuire wrote to the Yankees.
“I’d like to tell you about my best friend, Michael Sayre,” the letter began. “Michael is a 25-year-old diehard Yankees fan. He was born with glaucoma. Recently, he lost all vision in his right eye. Right now he’s hanging on to what vision he has left in his left eye, and his doctors don’t know how long it will remain healthy.
“I knew I had to do something special for him. Something he’d never forget. I’d like to take him to a Yankee game and give him the chance to experience the game like never before — to walk on the field, sit in the dugout, hear the dirt crunch beneath his feet or have him meet his all-time Yankee favorite, Don Mattingly. Nothing would mean more to Michael than to get up close and personal with the team he is so passionate about.”
it moves me to see people caring for one another.
And, to be honest, next to images of dads hugging/accepting their sons (Billy Elliot, Field of Dreams, Tribute w/Jack Lemmon (rent it), etc...), nothing makes me emotional like people realizing their dreams.
It's not the dreams that get me, it's that people have them.
So many have no dreams at all.
I wonder if dreams are the USA's greatest natural resource.
There's a voice in my head that says "How dare you throw away those dreams. You know, there are children in Africa who don't have any dreams at all. (There are people who are dead, in prison, bedridden, hospitalized, mentally or physically crippled, etc...) They're dying to have dreams, and you're just throwing them away."
Here, too. Lots of people can't afford dreams here, either.
They're expensive as hell.
I think they might be the luxury we can't live without.
Thank God for TV.
It dreams for us.
Watching it feels like having dreams of my own, feels like going after them, feels like exercise.
As long as I never turn it off, I don't have to hear the nothing, see the empty space.
(I wanted to share this as a happy story, honest. I was trying to wrap the story in warmth, I didn't realize the blanket was wet until it was too late.)
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