Arm Wrestling with My Father

"Arm Wrestling with My Father," by Brad Manning, recounts the tale of Manning's relationship with his father.  Through physical means, Manning and his father are able to "communicate" to each other with emotions.  When Manning is a child, he is unable to beat his father; however, he grows older, strong, and smarter, and is finally able to beat his father, signifying his coming of age and becoming the protective arm of support for his family.  

While and after reading this story, I was able to connect Manning's relationship to his father to my own relationship with my father.  Since I am pretty weak, arm wrestling was not the physical means of communication.  However, the constant battles on the tennis court are the way my father and I communicate and express emotion.  Since I was 9, we have constantly headed to the tennis courts, with my only goal to finally beat him.  Just as Manning when he was a child, I would naively attempt to beat the unbeatable, and at the end of every defeat look at my father as if he was an all powerful tennis god.  Further, just as when Manning grows up, I have begun to beat my father at tennis.  Now 16, I am a smarter, larger, and stronger person and competitor.  Additionally, I constantly see that, although I am growing up and becoming a bigger and better man, my father is getting older.  And although I have not reached this full state of manhood that Manning achieve at the end of his piece, I do recognized the transition that many people face where they must switch roles with the person they once looked up to and admired.  They find that they must take over the responsibilities and powers that their role models had once done.