Little Disapointments

Jeff isn't the champion.

Thomas, like his father before him,
and his father before him have all rooted for number 24.

This was Jeff Gordon's last race and he had a chance to win it all and take home 5 National Championships.  But, he came up short.

I'm not sure who was more devastated: Jeff Gordon, daddy, Papaw.... or Thomas.

I snapped a picture of the very sad 6 year old racing fan, and I put it on Facebook.

One comment-er said something about life disappointments being worse, and it made me think.

Yes, a professional driver losing a race is small in comparison to world hunger and unemployment. It's not even a blip on the radar in most people's lives that are full of downs and frustration.

But, he is 6.  I have no plans to rush his world along by pointing out how meaningless one highly paid man coming so close to winning it all before retirement is compared to all the horrors in the world.

I have learned over the years that I am in the minority for many, many things in parenting.  I helicopter, I shelter, I coddle--I do so many things that today's parents cluck their tongue at--and maybe I am doing it "wrong," but I am doing what is best for me and my family.  And, life is hard people--super hard. It is bitter and cold and lonely and full of so much hate and inequality.  Wouldn't you rather go back to a time when you didn't have to think or worry about life's disappointment?  When the biggest let down was no desert, or an early bedtime, or your favorite player losing the game?  There will be time for the big stuff. He will learn that sports are "fun," but not a real concern in his world one day. But for now, I have no problem that he feels sad for a man he has never known, will never know, but has rooted for since he was old enough to understand NASCAR.

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