"Freedom...................."

Noah, my youngest grandson, played his first game of basketball with Upward yesterday. He’s in Third Grade, the program merely an introduction to the sport, teaching them the basics with no real emphasis on the rules. The hoops are lowered. They play across the width of the court, rather than the length. Everybody gets to participate, regular periods set where the whole bench is swapped with those who are on the floor. Years ago no one kept score; but that had changed somewhere along the way, his team right in it until the last few minutes and then losing

by ten points. No damage down to his ego, though, the idea of winning, to him, not yet a vital part of what it’s all about. He had been “in the action”. Mom and dad, siblings, grandparents, two of his aunts and all his cousins had come to see him do this. Life was good. Not all the boys were as blessed, however. A young mother was sitting with two small children on the top tier of the bleachers, an older son a part of the competition. Beside her, propped against the wall, was a three foot cardboard cut-out picture of her husband who is currently serving in Afghanistan. It helped, she said, to maintain at least some sense of their daddy’s presence, both at home and on occasions like this. I shook her hand and expressed my gratitude for her sacrifice. So many give so much. God help me to never take my liberty for granted…..