The Gut Punch

One of my favorite parts of reading is when you come across something that is so well written that it causes your body to react. The author's words come off the page, blast through your emotional dampeners and cause a visceral, physical reaction. We're talking gasps, tears and outright sobbing. And it's always from a book you don't expect it to come from. Sure TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE is going to pull at your heartstrings but a book about baseball cards? That's when that gut punch is the best. 

Yesterday morning was a damn near perfect morning in Central New York, so instead of staying inside I decided to sit on the front porch and read. I sipped the Dunkin frozen chai my sister-in-law delivered to me on her way to work (I really did marry over my skis in so many ways) and started reading "The Battery" in Brad Balukjian's genius book THE WAX PACK. The chapter is about little known pitcher Jaime Concanower. A card my friends or I would've used to put in our bicycle spokes. Balukjian went all the way to Arkansas to interview him. The last page and a half of the chapter quite literally reached off the page, opened my rib cage and punched me repeatedly in my heart. In front of this virtual stranger, Concanower breaks down about his wife's battle with breast cancer. I shut the book, took a deep sigh that morphed from a gasp to a full on chest sob. Holy shit. It was the perfect combination of story and writing. It was a moment I both envied and appreciated. 

There have been plenty of moments where this has happened. Something so powerful in the written word that my body reacts. The death of Ned Stark. The Red Wedding. The entire chapter "Speaking of Courage" from the THINGS THEY CARRIED. Sean Devine ruminating about his relationship with his father in MYSTIC RIVER. Act I, Scene III of FENCES. All moments where I reacted both emotionally and physically. Gasps and sobs that caused people around me to check on my well being. Even now, in reflection, I'm have allergies. That happened again whole reading "The Battery."

I don't know if it's my father's battle with cancer.

I don't know if it's my unbounded love of my wife. 

I don't know if it's being cooped up in a house for so long.

And maybe it's just a combination of some or all of these things. 

It's 24 hours later and I'm still thinking about it. The sounds of my family's shenanigans filling the house and making me smile. But I'm thinking about Jaime and Gini Concanower, hoping they get to enjoy as many moments like the one unfolding in my house right now.

Mr. & Mrs. Concanower, I doubt you'll read this, but if you do, know that we're rooting for you in Liverpool, NY.