I watched last night as many of us did the awful play out of what occurred during the Monday Night Football broadcast. I watched it as a fan. I watched it as a human being. I watched it as a mother. I watched it as a bereaved mother.
Like everyone, I was struck with emotion on a lot of levels seeing a 24-year-old fall to the ground like he did. It was horrific for everyone. I have carried it since on a level I suppose goes deep for a myriad of reasons that are different and difficult to adequately explain. I have seen them written out in words on other Facebook posts by mothers, fans and the like. Over and over today I have asked myself in the need to “get it out,” what is the take from it all?
It is hopeful that he will make a full recovery. We still await that news. My heart stays with his family today. In the moments however, the long moments of silence and stillness in what should have been filled with the raucous noise of football, we saw much. We saw what we think of as very strong, tough men, cry. We saw them hold one another, pray and be brought to a humble place of needing nothing other than each other. We saw a stadium of thousands not move for over an hour just awaiting something…news of anything. We saw many of these same fans go to the hospital and wait vigil praying and lighting candles. We saw normally chatty broadcasters fight back tears and unable to find words trying to fill the space.
There is often little reason to find in the awful things that happen in life. You will make yourself crazy looking for them. The takeaway, I struggle with as well but as we go forward reflect on what we saw. Overwhelmingly, we saw love. We saw good. We saw thousands (millions if you count those of us not physically there) stop everything to care about the life of one human being. Perhaps it was the stage being the perfect venue to show us all, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It still happened. It was a slice of time when love won out over all else. That deserves some reflection as to how to move forward for everyone who witnessed it.
