This very touching photo is making the rounds among my Facebook friends and many Facebook groups that I belong to. The photo is said to show a coal miner coming straight from work to this past weekend’s University of Kentucky Blue-White Game in Pikeville, Kentucky with his son.
University of Kentucky Head Basketball Coach John Calipari was touched by the picture and posted the photo on his Facebook page this morning and committed to providing VIP tickets to the miner and his family at a home game at Rupp Arena. The coach used his post to talk about his family's ties to mining.
We all want this photo and the story going around with it to be true. We want to live in a world where parents bond with their kids. We deeply appreciate the sacrifice and the exhaustion captured in the photo. We want this to be a good lasting memory for father and son. We know that look on that mine worker's face and we can see ourselves in it. We appreciate Coach Calipari remembering where he came from and his generosity, and we wish that others who have moved up and moved out would do the same. It is so tough in the mining towns and hollers, and especially in Southeast Kentucky, that people need a stand-in who sacrifices and gets recognition and a reward. That mine worker could be so many struggling and deserving people who want to bond with their kids and grandkids. Whether the photo and the story are what is being claimed or not, there are great truths here.
God bless that man and his son and Coach John Calipari.
God bless every parent and grandparent who gives or tries to give to their young ones.
God bless every hard-working person and every unemployed person with that look on their face and everyone who knows and feels what that look means.
There is an opportunity here to consider some important questions. Why don't parents and grandparents have more time with their young ones? Why are we so tired so much of the time? And what about all of the other people---moms who work in their homes and factory workers and white-collar workers---who also run from their work to pick up their kids and get them to an event that they can share in? Where is their recognition? Why aren't there more Coach Caliparis? Why are the media companies, the social media companies, the electronics industry, top performers, the so-called "influencers," and so many others trying to separate parents and children with tablets, phones, TikTok, and so many other forms of individualized forms of entertainment? Why is it that a father and son at a ball game without a phone in their hands is news?
My final thoughts on this are kind of simple. We needed help getting Black Lung legislation passed recently but it was hard finding allies. We need help now with the Warrior Met Coal strike in Alabama as those mine workers have been on strike almost eighteen months. Those workers and their families need our support. I am so happy to see support for this great man and his son, but some of that support is coming from folks who would not live next door or sit next to this man and his family, much less support mine workers when the help is urgently needed. Let's make solidarity with one another and care for all of our kids a lifestyle, something we do 24/7 and become famous for.
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