An Oscillating Fan

When I reflect back on my childhood, many images pop into my head: Being in church whenever the church doors were open. Summers at a rented cabin in Colorado. Ski trips. Family friends. German Shepherds. Piano lessons. Saturday morning cartoons. And, always... ALWAYS... the Dallas Cowboys.

My parents are ardent Cowboys fans. Like you wouldn't believe. My husband frequently likes to watch the NFL channel and at times they replay classic Cowboy games from the 1970's. When I see Tom Landry on the sidelines wearing his trademark hat or hear the announcer say "Staubach," I'm immediately transported back in time. Just the sound of one of those games is the soundtrack of my childhood Sunday afternoons/ Monday nights. My parents even bought a blue and silver van once, and I (then, in the thick of my teen years) held my hands over my eyes when they brought it home, afraid to look at it because I just KNEW it would be one of the ones with a Cowboys helmet or blue star on the side. It wasn't. But I wouldn't have been surprised.

Alack and alas, despite their best attempts to instill a strong faith in me for my hometown team and to "train me up in the way I should go"... my parents ended up with a "fair weather fan" in their only daughter. My brother has always remained faithful (so thankfully they didn't have two wayward children) but during the 80's I drifted away. Friends became more important to me. I didn't live for the Cowboys at all. One might have never have even known I came from a Cowboy home.

Well, then the 90's "dynasty" came, and once I finally got over the fact the Tom was no longer the coach and they began winning Super Bowls again... I was back. I had my own child by then and it was time to return to what I had always known. The "weather was good" so I was a Cowboy fan once more. But, as with most mountaintop experiences, this was not to last, and when the pressures of life returned and they stopped winning as much, I drifted once more.

Then there was last season. We were so close! I just knew we would go to the Super Bowl, and this time I rooted for them as hard as I could because... well, because if Dallas was in the Super Bowl my husband and I had predetermined that we would cancel Awana for that night. (Oh, how I desperately wanted a week off!) I cheered them on wholeheartedly, and felt a faint flicker, a reminder of what I had once known to be true deep in my soul. Sadly, it was not to last.

So, what's it going to be this season? Has my fire returned? Will I once again go back to what my family of origin instilled in me and be the Cowboys fan I was raised to be?

OH yeah.

And (besides another shot at a night off of Awana) here's one of the main reasons why: DeMarcus Ware.


Here is his precious family:


And here is their incredible story.