Dear Ethan,

Canada was beaten by USA in the World Juniors Hockey Championship. Those Canadian kids, most of them below 20, literally lost in the Stanley Cup final. They are experiencing one of the most disappointing times in their lives.

Ethan, I can’t stress enough how much I want you to be a professional hockey player. My worry though is your last name does not make the announcement of “Score, Tam!” sound very cool. But you will get over it if you learn about other weird names in the league, like “Tootoo”, “Eager”, “Sharp”, “Cheechoo”……

I saw a bunch of kids go nuts for a goal, they wept sitting on the blue-line hearing another anthem. I felt for them. And I imagined you as one of them, heart broken and devastated, you would lock yourself in your room listening to some heavy metal music for days. There’s nothing I could do to make your feel better. But I would be very proud of you because you would become stronger and more competitive. You would understand victory does not come easily.