Lucky

Sports people often ascribe to the adage, “it’s better to be lucky than to be good.”  Well, I’m not an athlete, but I am usually pretty lucky – and it’s good!

When my kids were about 5 and 7 years old, I took them to Redskins Training Camp.  It was a few miles down the road and we needed an activity.  And what the heck — it’s never too early to instill a love of football and the Washington Redskins.

When we got there, the place was buzzing.   Aside from watching the players practice, there were games to play and pictures to be taken with cut outs of players.  There was a massive merchandising tent.

I took my kids to one of the games – where the goal was to toss a football into a cut out circle (which was meant to be the receiver’s hands).  When it was our turn, the kids wanted me to be the one tossing the football.  So, without much thought, I tossed the football and it went through the slot.  No big deal, right?  Wrong!

The slouchy teenager who was working the game stood up and exclaimed “How did you do that?  No one has made it all day.”  He called over a co-worker to tell him what just happened.  The grandparents behind me peered in to get a glimpse of me.  The folks in the back of the line started inching closer to see what was causing the commotion.  My kids looked around and started beaming — realizing that their mom was somehow impressing all these people.

The teen-aged boy asked me to do it again.  The onlookers wanted to know my secret.  I just smiled and shrugged and said it would be best to let some others try – and we walked away.

I know I was lucky that day, but that was my secret.  It was good to be a superstar in my kids’ eyes.  No explanation necessary.

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