The man in the mirror…

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   I looked in the mirror this morning and wondered what happened to the young guy that once starred back at me. The guy standing there looking at me resembled him, but he looked like life had beat him up a bit. 

     How has changed?  Some of his heroes have changed. The man in the mirror still reads a Stephen King novel once in a while, but there are a few books from Mr. King that he’s never read. His interests haven’t changed much. He still enjoys science fiction and fantasy, but now he’ll read action and adventure as well as non-fiction. He still reads the Bible but with a little more understanding of what it means to him now. 

     Some of the movie heroes he enjoyed have passed away or past their prime. Now, he’ll watch a good mystery, science fiction story, or an interesting documentary. The names of the stars don’t stick in his head like they used to. He knows Harrison Ford, John Wayne, and Tommy Lee Jones, but couldn’t tell you who was in the movie he watched yesterday. 

     He still thanks a police officer or a fireman for their service. These days he thanks doctors, nurses, and just about anyone who worked through the last year while most stayed home. 

     His parents and in law’s are still his biggest heroes. If not for them, his life and his wife’s would have been much different.  The life and love he built with his family would not exist if not for them. 

     Suddenly, I realized why the face in the mirror is so different from the young man who once starred back at me. The lines of his face have been shaped by caring for and worrying about his parents, his wife, and their two children. Some of the lines are from laughter. Some of them are from tears and pain. Some are from smiling with pride. He’d change none of them . 

      The face in the mirror is mine.  It’s mine until death takes it from me. You might change it a little here and there, but the foundation has been set for many years and grows stronger as each year passes. I can still look in the mirror and smile at myself, but I see things you can’t.      

     I can see my wife behind me holding me up. She stepped in when my parents roles changed. My children stand beside my wife. They help her push me forward to whatever the future throws at me. Everyone that I love and care about is in there. All have made me the man I am today.

     Sometimes I’m proud of him. Sometimes I’m ashamed. All and all I’m happy with him and there’s not much I’d change. 

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