Hunger

Lately, I've been using bit torrent to download TV shows from the states. It allows me to keep up with American culture.

I've been amazed by this one show called the Contender. The show basically brought a bunch of the best middleweight boxers in the US to fight for a million dollars. It's basically elimination matches with some in between team competition which decides who will fight. They break up the teams into the East and West. The team who wins the competition chooses their own fighter and who that fighter will face from the opposing team.

What amazes me is the heart and hunger of each of the fighters. Each episode is cliffhanger tear-jerker because these men put their reputation, soul, and future on the line for a brief moment in time where they face their demons in battle. Although they are men in every sense, their own identity is being put to test. Their stories are real and we live vicariously through their victory and defeat. They fight not only for themselves but their loved ones. In many of the Latino fighters, they fought for their parents. They wanted to provide for them a better life and that this was their one chance.

This made me reflect on my own family and how my own parents toiled endlessly in our dry cleaners to allow me to grow up in comfort. What have I done to make their lives better? How have I been as a son? These are things that I only now have started to think about. Perhaps not living with them for so long has made me think more than myself.

Daily, as a soldier, I think about how I serve my country. Daily I think about how I can better myself and how I can better enjoy my life. I think I have forgotten about my family and what they should mean to me.