Christmas Day

So ends Christmas Day.  I went to the gym after getting coffee at Starbuck's, the only place open in my neighborhood.  At the gym, I went through my swim drill and then got home to get ready to meet with my family for Christmas supper.

It was the best supper.  We had cornbread, roast lamb, baked sweet potatoes, mashed shredded potatoes and fruit and cookies for dessert, with fresh coffee.  The lamb was the best and I had mine rare, the way I like my meat.  Then we all went to see a movie, "The Fighter."

The movie is about two brothers and how the oldest brother knocked out Sugar Ray but was too old to continue boxing and had developed a bad back.  He taught his younger brother how to fight and his family, which included his mother and 7 daughters, were his managers.  His mother was a shrewd, manipulating businesswoman who was not afraid of anybody.  In comparison, her husband was kind of wimpy.

So the younger brother was knocked up pretty badly in a fight his mother had arranged and, while recovering, dated a bartender who had gone to college, and his sisters thought she was conceited.  The older brother kept getting into trouble and was a crack user.  When he ran out of money to buy drugs, he swindled other people with the help of his girlfriend and when the police caught up with him, he was beat down and, on the way to getting arrested, his younger brother tried to defend him and the police beat him up and broke his hand.

While his hand healed, he went back to his girlfriend, who convinced him to leave his family and get a new manager.  But his mother knew this manager was using her son and, sure enough, during a fight, the younger brother took his older brother's advice to aim for the body, and consequently won the fight.  After this, and after his brother got out of jail, his family got together again and even accepted his girlfriend, the older brother gave up drugs, and the kid was on a role, becoming the new champion of the world.

During this famous fight, the kid was dragging and about to surrender but his older brother, who was coaching him in the ring, gave him a pep talk that now was his time and to give it everything he had learned and trained for.  The kid came around and beat his opponent.  So, as my sister asked, what is the moral of the story?  Never give up, stay sharp mentally, life is a fight and the best fighter wins?  To me, it meant having the courage to do what is inside of you already.  Use your gut, I guess.

Christmas may be over, but the magic stays, I hope...oh, and I'm sorry I gave away the plot!  But it's a good movie, anyway, with good music and good shots of some rough neighborhoods that remind me of places I have known.