The heart wants what it wants and we wanted Tom
Update: Feb. 1, 2023. My hero, Tom Brady, has announced his retirement "for good". I wrote the following after his last "retirement", though this time I know it is true. Couldn't love you more, Tom. Thanks for showing millions of us how the game should be played, for providing a beacon during hard times, for being you. I will miss you. February 5, 2017 I had been watching Superbowl LI in my mom's man cave. She was, of course, back in her room. She wasn't a football fan, but told me she loved my enthusiasm for Tom Brady and (at the time, before he left them) the Pats. So when they pulled out a victory and I ran screaming into her room, seeing her face light up with sheer joy was its own kind of success. I had made my late mother happy just by being happy myself. The end of that game sticks with me because I was worried about Tom's mother Galynn - whom he was hugging, and who was suffering from breast cancer at the time. I worried she might pass away,...