I’ve been sick the last few days with a head cold that I always get in December. I’ve often wondered if perhaps I’m allergic to Christmas trees or dust from the decorations in the attic. The only times in recent memory that I’ve escaped my Christmas time head cold were those when I came home from travelling.
Anyway, the best way to get rid of congestion is to exercise. It comes back afterwards, but for a few hours you feel all better.
Some folks I know asked me to play for their basketball team last night. I figure that in a not so distant future I will be tempted to talk about how good I used to be. You know that conversation when older people say they “used to” be able to do this or that? I never much liked it. I “used to” wet the bed. Am I supposed to give them a lollipop for what they can no longer do?
I am as good as I ever was, probably better. I didn’t “used to” be able to do anything I can do right now, though I suffer more aches and pains that I did at 18.
When is that desire to be better not a wish for improvement but an inability to let go of the past? After all, one cannot be always better at everything ad infinitum. One must reach a peak.
And I think I’ve reached mine. I’m happy to say it was very late for me. I am approaching 30 and I’m arguably in the best shape of my life.
The game went well. We won and I poured in 28 points in a short game. If it had been an NBA length game and I’d continued to score at the same pace (not likely), I’d have scored 50. It is fun.
That feeling, the one where we climb the beanstalk and rescue the princess, is one I wish we all felt more often. We forget about it as we get older and it makes us dull…unwilling to risk because we’ve forgotten the reward. Or maybe we don’t forget as we get older, but the forgetting makes us older.
I know I’ve given up a lot to live my life. I wake up everday to the trades I’ve made. I occasionally envy others for what they’ve been able to build and for their ability to be satisfied with it….an ability I fear I lack.
And so I often wonder what I’ve earned by prolonging this part of my life, the one where you are young and all the possibility in world still lies before you, where you are still as good as you’ll ever be at everything you’ve ever done.
With a smile I can say I feel it is its own reward.
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