Life is Good

It is the tendency of most columnists to reflect on the past as the year comes to a close.  I want to do that but in a little different way. 

I want to look at 10 years backward and then 10 years down the road.  It was an article in Smithsonian the magazine that prompted this approach.  In it, the author looked at the age at which you become the person that you are finally going to be.

I guess part of it is that I've never really wanted to stop growing and changing (and improving) so I eagerly await the person I am to become.  It's not that I don't want to get old, it's just that I like the process.  I guess that's why I went back at 55 to get still another college degree, a doctorate in physical therapy.

Anyway, 10 years ago I was 50.  I was CEO of Appalachian Therapy Center and enjoyed going to work. 

Maryville High School's football team had just lost in the semi-finals to Morristown West in a messy, wet game that had been postponed to a Saturday night.  I remember this huge defensive end at Mo West that seemed destined for greatness and a Rebels team that simply ran out of time.

My son was not yet married to my favorite daughter-in-law and had just finished his football at Clemson University with a career ending injury while playing in a game at Florida State.  It was a great ride. 

Our daughter was (is) married to a wonderful young man but those grandbabies had not yet started coming around.  Let me say that being the parent of adult children was (is) absolutely wonderful. 

In 2003, I had been married for 26 years to the same wonderful lady.  I was riding my road bike a lot and had made the decision to ride year-round.   I still had a mountain bike and some great excursions with some buddies on that bike were coming in the next few years. 

Life was good.

10 years from now, I'll be 70.  

My partners and I sold Appalachian Therapy Center to Blount Memorial Hospital and the merged clinics became Total Rehab.   Then they give me the job doing what I had been doing for years:  running several outpatient clinics, seeing patients, covering high school sports, and writing this column.  I always said I would retire when it quit being fun.  It still is so there's a chance  I'll probably still be doing it all then.

MHS will have appeared in its 20th straight state championship game and they will name the 6A championship trophy after George Quarles, since he will have coached in every single 6A state championship game ever played.

We will have had our 7th grandchild and I think that might be it.  The oldest will be a senior in high school.  I'm predicting that volleyball will be her sport, just like her mom.  I will have enjoyed watching every game the grandchildren play and will never have yelled at a coach or referee.

I will be painting more but still giving them away.  I'll still be known around town as the guy that writes the column in the newspaper. 

I'll still be on the road bike but my mountain bike days will be limited to gentle days on velvety smooth singletrack.   Oh, and there might have been a brief hiatus in my biking while I got that bum right knee replaced.

I will have been married 46 years to that same wonderful lady.

And life will still be good.