Tom was introduced at the men’s cologne seminar, as being the guest speaker for the ending of the seminar. He walked up to the podium and everyone saw that he was wiping tears from his eyes. He then took a stack of index cards from his coat pocket, and held them up in the air. He then gave the following speech, that left not a dry eye in the 2,000 seat room.
“These are the cards with all my notes on them. They tell me what to say, when to say it, to make my message wedged into your brains hard. I wrote on them the things, that make this cologne the one thing a man needs, to make him a real man.” Tom then ripped them up into small pieces and threw them all over the stage. He then continued his speech.
“Because of what my wife told me about our son 5 minutes ago on my cell phone, makes everything I wrote on these cards, garbage. Today our son became a hero at school, when he saved the life of a Down’s Syndrome little girl. She was always being teased mercilessly by older kids at school. It happened every day. Everyday the older kids would make her drop her books, or her lunch, or anything she happened to be carrying.
The girl was walking down the corridor not 1 hour ago, carrying her grape drink, when one of the bullies tripped her. Instead of her drink spilling only on the floor, it flew up and splashed all over the bully’s clothes. He got extremely pissed off. He then flew into a rage, and lifted his fist clenched arm in the air. As he was lowering his arm with great strength and speed, a hand came out of nowhere stopping the arm. That arm belonged to my son.
My son looked at the bully right in his eyes and told him that if he laid a hand on the girl, he would call the police. He added that, while waiting for the police to come, he would take the bully apart. Every student in the corridor was in total shock at the courage of my son. Nobody ever stood up to the bully. But, then my son went and helped the Down’s Syndrome girl to her feet, and escorted the girl to the school nurse. She had hit her leg and was limping.
- English: Studio publicity portrait of Montgomery Clift. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When asked by the Principal, his teacher, and his mother, why he chose to act on the girls behalf, considering he did not personally know her, my son uttered these words; “If a man doesn’t go his own way, he’s nothing.” If any of you here at the seminar don’t remember, that is a quote from the movie star Montgomery Clift, from the movie “From Here to Eternity”. My son Greg has seen that movie 5 times just to hear that one line.
One time, about 3 years ago, Greg came over to me and told me that he wanted a tattoo. I asked him why. He said all the other guys have one. I asked him to remember that line by Montgomery Clift, and realize that doing what everybody else is doing, just to be part of the crowd, makes you a moron.
Gentlemen, this story has the lesson, that makes our men’s cologne nothing more than scented water. Male role models can come in the form of anything. Gangs, priests, drunks, drug addicts, and Montgomery Clift. When I was away from work, my son used Montgomery Clift character to emulate. This character is fictitious, but the point of how to be an adult is apparent. You protect those who cannot protect themselves. You lead when everybody else is cowardly. You act, when everybody is stationery.
This concludes my speech on what it takes to be a man. It’s a proper male role model.
