Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of my visit to my doctor to be checked for “shortness of breath”. It started a journey.
I see that Brett Favre has accepted the invitation to be inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame. It happens next year in July, 2015. A divided Packer Nation will either applaud or “boo” the induction. How soon we forget. For 14-15 years, Favre generated energy on game day and that energy rejuvenated the Green Bay Packers. Embrace the gray haired, gray bearded warrior. He never missed a game! Think about that. He never missed a game. How can you boo that? He is now left with the prospect of going “goofy” from all the years of concussions and millions and millions of dollars.
Grasshopper No.2 visited Saturday. During a reflection about “life”, her observation was that she wondered during the last year “when did my parents get old”? Really? This from someone who was a toddler “just yesterday” and now has passed the 50 years of age mark.
So No.2 posed the question “what is old”. I went to my guru (one of the guys that I exercise with daily). What is old? He said that was easy. The first sign of getting old is when the family takes away your ladder. My guru would crawl up on the roof each Fall and blow leaves out of the gutters. The family decided they didn’t want him doing that any more. Poof! The ladder disappeared. The second indication of getting old was the family took away his chain saw. He used the saw to cut wood for the fireplace. Not any more! No chain saw. He realized he is officially “old”.
This is good “stuff”. I don’t have to worry about anyone taking away my ladder because Grasshopper No.3 borrowed it 25 years ago and never returned it. Secondly, I have never owned a chain saw, so that can’t be taken from me. I have realized that there is no measure to judge “I am old”. I can be young forever.
Love,
Dad