We all sacrifice
"I'm starving."
"If we don't do something I'm going to die."
"This is so hard."
In reality our stomachs are just grumbling because it's been a few hours since we've eaten, we aren't really going to die, and whatever it is that is so hard, well, it's actually easy compared to a lot of situations.
Oh, and we sacrifice all the time.
John "sacrificed" some sleep because he only got six hours last night on his brand new king-sized bed.
Jane "sacrificed" her Friday night by having to stay home and watch her little sister.
And I "sacrificed" my coolness a long time ago by wearing a pink and black silk shirt my parents picked out in my seventh grade year book picture.
In actuality, former Tabor College football player Ben Brown sacrificed.
Over, and over, again.
Shall we count the ways:
— Worked at K-Mart, Toys 'R' Us, and Sport Authority all at once to support his family.
— Slept on the floor with his wife in an apartment that included a TV with no cable and a bed for his daughter.
— Took two years off from school to raise his daughter with his wife, then moved halfway across the country to finish school and play football at Tabor.
— Left his family in California to attend an invited tryout with the NFL's Green Bay Packers to help put the food on his family's plates.
— After not making the team, played football for $200 per game with the Spokane Shock of the arenafootball2 league so he can one day make it to the NFL and his family will be financially secure.
Sure he loves playing the game, but he didn't do it because of his desire to play, or his desire to bounce around from Sacramento to Hillsboro, to Atlanta, Green Bay, and then Spokane.
He did it because of his desire to raise a good family, and be a good husband and father.
The Shock released him July 11.
The team's director of communications Kevin Mahoney told me he was a great person and running back, but the AF2 is a passing league, and Brown's blocking wasn't up to par.
It can be a cruel world.
But it happens, and Ben will bounce back.
I just wonder what he will have to sacrifice next.
