What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy?

"A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms. Enthusiasms... What are mine? What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy? Baseball! A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. Teamwork.... Looks, throws, catches, hustles.Part of one big team. Bats himself the live-long day, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and so on. If his team don't field... what is he? You follow me? No one. Sunny day, the stands are full of fans. What does he have to say? I'm goin' out there for myself. But... I get nowhere unless the team wins."


-Robert De Niro as Al Capone in "The Untouchables"





Okay, I will admit it. The above quote is a tad bit grim if you have ever seen the movie "The Untouchables." In the scene, Robert De Niro brilliantly plays Al Capone as he is addressing his top commanders in his organization. The above speech is given just before he takes a baseball bat to the back of the head of one of said commanders for screwing something up. It is a gruesome scene with a disgusting fade but the speech is GREAT!!!! I chose two of the lines from the speech for the title of this blog so that is why I felt it was almost mandatory to include the entire speech in deference to Mr. De Niro. Truth be told, the blog is actually going to be full of happiness and wonderful images of things that make me happy. I suppose since this blog will be about a few of my favorite things, I could have used a sweet and sappy quote from the Sound Of Music to lead things off..... Naaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!! Y'all know me better than that. It just wouldn't be like me. I may be a happier, stronger, and less cynical man than I was a year ago but I still have my rough edges. I can still be a bad ass and a rebel..... Well, kinda...... Anywho...... This blog is going to be about two things that make me smile. I mean ear to ear smiling. I mean smiling that just won't go away. Heart smile material. The first smile causer is the laughter of a child....Specifically my child..... The other smile causer is the love of a good woman... No specifics on this one because I said so.....
So most of you know I have a 7 year old daughter by the name of Vivian. If you are reading this on my blogspot website you have seen her picture when you first get here. She is the pretty little girl kissing me under the title "Me and My World." That is just what she is to me. My world. There are too many things about her that make her my world to go into detail on all of them. I can tell you this, though. Her smile and laughter are the 2 things that catapult her to the top of the very short list of favorite people in my life. To meet her is to know her smile is infectious. To play with her is to know her laughter can tame even the most ferocious heart. She is a sweet child. A passionate child. She is empathetic. Deeply spiritual. Loving. Caring. Smart and VERY observant. Things did not work out between her mother and I. She comprehends this and still maintains a level of adjustment that 2 teachers have commented on frequently. Her first 2 teachers in school have both made comments regarding her personality and how she is nothing like most of their students from "broken homes." She is amaZing. She blows me away. She makes me laugh. This is hard to do considering I am the funniest person I know. All of these attributes make her WHO she is but this blog is about WHAT she does to me. When she laughs, no matter what it is about, it puts a smile on my face that takes forever and a day to get rid of. Dammit, I just ended a sentence with a preposition..... Maybe no one noticed..... Keep going dummy.....You know what I am talking about, even if you don't have kids of your own!!! A child's laughter has incredible powers! It can cause a frown from even the grumpiest of Papa's to disappear in an instant. Vivian's laugh can do that to her Papa. It can make my worst day seem like a drop in a bucket. Maybe because I know all of the other good stuff about her. Maybe because it's a cute laugh. Maybe it's just 'cause I love her. Who really cares why. I just hope she never stops laughing.
The second thing that makes me perma-grin is the love of a woman. Hoo-ah!!!!! Love sweet love. A year and a half ago, I would have told you there is no such thing as love. If you pressed me hard enough to admit there was love in the world I would possibly relent to the idea of love but not that there was love out there for me. Not from a woman, at least. I would hope not from a man but definitely not from an evil, satanic, demonic, Hellish vixen who only wanted to, once again, suck the very life out of me and leave me for dead. No sir!!!! Did not want that. Not ever again. Guess what.....? I have changed my opinion of, not only women, but of love from women!!!!! I have discovered over the last year or so that it is possible to get love from a woman. I have discovered that said love is not too bad at all!!!! I have discovered that not all women are of the succubus species that most men have grown accustomed to. There are a few out there that really get it. They get men. They understand what we are and what we are about. They see past our crap and see through to the soft chewy centers and take it in all the way. They love us. This makes me smile. Every single day. It makes me smile ear to ear. It makes my heart smile. Wow, I did get pretty sappy there, didn't I? Glad I started off with De Palma. I would get labeled very unfairly, otherwise......