Miss the game but not the crap?

If you are like me then you miss hockey but not the rhetoric. I am sick and tired of all of the strike news (Or should I say no news). The press went crazy talking about how everything was exactly the same as when it all began. No hockey + buckets of rhetoric and venom = no hockey. That, to me, means no change. I feel compelled to post this little letter I stumbled across though as it is really funny as well as very thought provoking.

Let's all have a good laugh and then put the subject to rest like it should be.

A Father Writes About Hockey

I've been thinking recently and I really don't see much of a difference between the average NHL player and my 4 year old. Both are entertaining; both play games for a living; both think they're smarter than they really are.

I have been guilty in the past of spoiling my child and giving in too often to his demands for more, more, more - much like the owners have been guilty of overpaying players for so many years. Soon I began to realize that I couldn't afford buying toys at the present rate; I had to start sticking to a budget and saying no to his demands. Like the players, his initial reaction was crying, kicking, yelling, screaming and name-calling - he hated me as the players hate Bettman. Eventually though, the ultimatum was given to him - either accept less toys or face the prospect of getting no toys at all. He decided it was better for him to live with less than with nothing and agreed.

I guess that's one difference between my 4 year old and the players - the ability to see the writing on the wall.

My four year old has never had to worry about money. He's never had to endure the stress of having to stretch a paycheque long enough to pay for both the rent AND food on the table; or the broken heart that comes from telling a child that they can't have what their friends have because the money simply isn't there; or the fear of losing your home if you find yourself jobless for just a few months.

My four year old doesn't have to think of such things. Neither do the NHL players. My four year old does not realize that he has it good. He doesn't think about the many children in the world (or even the same city) who don't have the luxuries that he has. He gets caught up in his own small problems, never realizing how incredibly small these problems would seem to a homeless child.

The NHL players also lack this empathy and complain in public (the vast majority of whom will never make in their lives what the player makes in a year) about how unfair it would be to force them to make $5 million instead of $7 million. Listening to the players as they ill-advisedly open their mouths time and time again, I have come to realize the biggest difference between my 4 year old and the NHL players...........

I'd miss my four year old if he was gone.