Last night belonged to the annual Wild Turkey Christmas Extravaganza at the James Joyce.
A table full of boys from the southwest corner of Oak Park. Brothers, neighbors, stragglers, and extended family. The kind of group where if you haven’t seen each other in a year, it feels like you were together the day before yesterday. No warm-up needed and no explanations required.
There were hugs that lasted a second longer than they used to. Laughter that came easier than it does most days. Gratitude, plain and unspoken, hanging over the table like incense. The median age is sixty now. That snuck up quickly. Growing older together has been a blessing, and with God’s grace, we’ve probably got twenty more extravaganzas left in us. That is a number worth protecting.
Today is Army vs. Navy. The purest football game left. No transfer portals, no NIL circus, no nonsense. Just discipline, tradition, and young men playing for something bigger than themselves. It is the way the game was meant to be played ... clean, cold, and honest.
Stay warm today. Watch the Christmas lights do what they have always done. Let the old traditions work on you quietly. Grace changes the scale, whether you notice it or not.
