Mothers Day (late)

I found this in an editorial column of Sunday's Raleigh N&O and thought I would share it for Mother's Day:

"The text for today's Mother's Day homily comes from an unlikely source: page233 of Will Blythe's 'To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever'. Actually, this is a poor choice of titles, implying this is just another book about what is reputed to be the fiercest college sports feud in America: the Duke vs. Carolina basketball rivalry.

Blythe's book is much more than that. Through vivid writing rich in smiles, humor, and penetrating interviews, the obsessed Carolina grad and former literary editor of Esquire probes the depths of the human condition as revealed through the medium of the nation's sports mania. Blythe does his homework: hanging out with players from both schools, visiting recruits in their homes, interviewing former players, and even infiltrating the camps of Kryzyzewskiville. All in building his case that Duke is the most hated basketball dynasty in America.

A highlight of the volume is the long-awaited and lengthy interview with the primary target of his dislike, Coach K himself. It was during the interview that Blythe experienced an epiphany: the realization that the man might be human after all.

Coach K recalled the time when his mother, before she died in 1996, asked, 'Mike, how did it all happen?', referring to his success and all the championships. When he replied 'Because of you,' she said, 'C'mon, c'mon.'

'She's the reason I'm not afraid to lose,' the coach told Blythe. 'That's because I always had her...And you know what she wanted from me? Nothing.'

As the coach turned his face away, Blythe saw the tears, and his own eyes filled as he recalled his own mother. And he thought, 'Here was the man who had come to represent everything on earth I loathed...and we were woo-wooing about our mothers...Man, this hatred gig was tough.'

Good mothers are like that. Their love is all powerful, melting away the icy crust of hate and causing grown men to cry in memory of them."

So, to my own mother, Happy Mothers Day Mom. I love you bunches.
(And Go Heels!)