Monday, June 27, 2005

Legendary Moments

Everyone who loves baseball knows the story of Babe Ruth's called shot...

Game three of the World Series. Wrigley Field. Fifth Inning. The Babe is at the plate. He gestures towards the outfield predicting his home run. Charlie Root delivers the pitch. Wham... Out of the park!

I experienced a legendary moment yesterday. My son Ciaran and daughter Kristy were competing at the first ever Celtic Fling Feis. Ciaran had two competitions, he performed with grace and ease and kept absolutely perfect time to the music for the first time ever in competition.

My daughter was competing in 5 events. The amount of challengers in each event was significantly more than Ciaran had to face. She did well in the first two events but did not place. When she checked the results board she was clearly disappointed. The day started to drag on, one event for which she had been waiting was delayed. A last minute change of shoes and a run across the grounds to get to where she had another upcoming competition. In one event she had a slip, I don't think even the judge noticed but she was beating up on herself. She completed the two events that were close in times to one another and then began the wait for her final dance...

... it was slow going, there were a lot of other competitions being judged on the stage ahead of her's.

Her final dance was to be the Hornpipe, the most complicated and longest dance step. It was also the one she had been doing for the shortest amount of time, having only recently learned it.

We continued to wait...The temperature climbed close to 100 degrees...Finally it was time for her dance. She was competing with two other girls who had previously placed higher than her in other steps. They went first, usually two dancers compete at the same time, and they did very, very well...

Here is where the legend begins...

I had moved to a small hill overlooking the stage so I had a better view. The other dancers were awesome. Kristy posed waiting for the starting beat, and she was off. I could tell in the first three steps she was going to win. She had never been better and she has always been very good. I had the same feeling watching her dance that the people watching Babe Ruth must have felt when they knew the ball was going over the fence. The knowledge that they were experiencing a great performance. Like the Babe's hit, Kristy's performance was a home run. She took the gold medal and I had the honor of being able to tell her, as I had snuck away later to check the scores.

Maybe it was a Cinderella moment only in my mind. The wait, the heat, the fact that she had not placed in the first two events, and did not yet know she had placed in her third and fourth events, the competing against the same girls, the poise, the dance, the championship performance.

I cannot wait to get back to work... There are a lot of people who are going to hear this story!

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