When I was younger, much younger, my friends and I would watch a movie on television only to go outside and reenact it in the yard. Whether we were cowboys and indians, soldiers fighting in a war or out on some space odyssey like Luke Skywalker or Buck Rogers. There was a time when wrestling was the biggest thing and we would watch it on television only to wound up making the living room or den the wrestling ring and hope we didn’t break nothing when our parents weren’t around.
As we got older things didn’t change much. We don’t tear the house apart wrestling, as a matter of fact I haven’t watched wrestling in a long time and it’s not because of the myth that went around years ago that it was fake. Only now my son and I watch hunting shows and fishing shows, and the very thing we both say is that we wished we could kill a big buck like that, or a moose or an elk or whatever else they are hunting. It kind of gives us an itch that can’t be scratched until we get out in the woods ourselves, early in the pre-dawn hours before the sun comes up and its cold outside. We get in the woods and sit and wait. Watching and listening for any sound of the monster buck that we’ve seen on television the weekend before.
Or what about the monster fish that is caught by those professional anglers? There are a few things on my bucket list and one of them is to be strapped in a chair with reel and rod to fight and haul in one of those monstrous sailfish or a massive blue marlin just once in my life.
The very thing we say is, “Man, I would love to do that!” whether it’s in the woods or on the water most men I know would love to do that just once. To have that picture of them standing next to that big fish or have that ‘wall-hanger’ trophy in the living room or den.
It reminds me of the song “If I Could Be Like That” by the group 3 Doors Down. ‘He spends his nights in California, watching the stars on the big screen, and he lies awakes and wonders, why can’t that be me.’
And before you ladies jump the gun and think it’s all a man thing, think again. Lately I’ve also had the privilege, courtesy of my wife, to watch the Food Network with her. We would watch the food challenge and one of our favorites is the Cake Challenge and Cupcake Wars. And she would say the same thing us guys would say to a hunting and fishing show, “I wish I could do like that”.
Television really does make it glamorous. We also watch DIY and HGTV and wished we could transform our houses and yards into what they do. And to think they also make it all look so easy. But sometime while watching these shows take a looks behind the person and see the tools and utensils they use to make everything from those backyards of paradise to those towering mountains of sugar they call cakes.
Then we go in the kitchen to have our scrambled eggs and toast and drink our coffee before going outside to cut the grass until it dies down in the fall. Then go out in the woods hoping maybe we can at least kill a small buck or even a doe. Well, now it’s back to reality so welcome back to the real world.
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