Travel We Must!

I've had the good fortune to travel here lately. Actually, throughout my adult life, I've been really blessed to go places and do things that I didn't even have the room to dream about when I was growing up.

I'm convinced that we all need to travel.  And we need to travel to places and truly experience those places.  Meet and get to know the people. 

We need to see new places.  Try new things.  Eat different food.  Listen to different music.

We need to discover how somebody else does things.  We might just find a better way to do what we do.

When I was a high school junior, we won the football state championship.  It was a big deal in my little town. The community actually raised money and sent the whole team to see Tennessee and Florida play in the Gator Bowl. 

Most of the players on the team had never been out of the state of Tennessee.  One player, my age, had never been outside of our home county. 

So we find ourselves in a budget motel in downtown Jacksonville where we were told to stay off the streets because it was the big city and so it was dangerous and all.

That didn't stop us.

One boy discovered liquor that trip--a discovery that would haunt him the rest of his life.  A few went looking (unsuccessfully) for girls.  Most just wandered the streets.

In some small way, we all learned that there was another world out there.  A world outside of our tiny burg of three red lights and two grocery stores.

Yes, travel.  Get out of your comfort zone.  See new things and experience different cultures.  It will be good for you.   

I just got back from a trip this week.  It was all that and more.  I had even been reluctant to leave my comfortable little world for a week.  I like my life.

But seeing new things and new places teaches us that the world is a big place.  It gives us perspective.  It lets us know in no uncertain terms that the world does not revolve around us.  That we have to live with others and find a way to make it all work.

Travel, put most simply, opens our eyes.  Opens our eyes to the beauty that lies in our own backdoor.  Opens our eyes to the value of collaboration with people sometimes very different from us.  It makes us more accepting of things that are different.  It opens our eyes to the possibilities of humanity.

In part of those recent travels, I crossed Oklahoma.  I saw people there, people of the Cherokee nation whose roots in this area--in the hills and valleys of east Tennessee--are far, far deeper than our own. 

People who were forcibly marched across this land to an area that was harsh and even barren, especially when you consider the mountains and rivers where they came from.  Certainly far from their home.

Yet, they have survived and have built a life and yes, a culture there.   That survivability, that uniqueness of the culture that has evolved, is something that we could all learn from.  While we will never be able to relate to what they've been through as a people, we can still learn from them.

But we've got to get out to where they are to even have that opportunity.  We must travel and not inside some monstrous ship or to a cookie-cutter hotel that happens to be on the beach.  We've got to get out there.

"Finish each day and be done with it."

"Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;  forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day;  begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense."

That's my favorite quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I remember back in the middle of the football season when a local coach said of his quarterback "he can make a mistake and then put it completely out of his mind.  It's over.  It's on to the next play."

It was meant to be a compliment.  It certainly seems compatible with Emerson's advice.  Could there be any better advice in the middle of a big game?  It is often said of those athletes that can do that (forget about past mistakes and move on) have ice-water in their veins.

Forgot about it.  Put it behind you.  Move on.

One of my responsibilities with the MHS football team is the conditioning of the kickers.  Think about it.  Pretty much all they do at football practice is kick.

And I can tell you that it's easy to kick too much.  Sometimes we even count the number of kicks.   

So what happens is that the kickers get finished before the rest of the football team.

That's where I come in.  I take them through their conditioning and stretching drills.

What also happens is that I get close to them.  We become pals.  I don't coach them--we've got plenty of good folks that can do that--but I'm definitely there to encourage them.  Maybe pick them up when they get down.

I am part of their support system.  I know that I try to be the first one to greet them when they come off the field during a game, whether they had a good kick or not.

For a kicker that has just missed one or shanked a punt, nothing is more important than to live by Emerson's mantra.  Forget that last kick.  It's gone.  You can't do it again. Just nail the next one. 

We all make mistakes.  No one is perfect.  We're going to miss a free throw or strike out or double fault. 

But it's what we do next that is most important.  Do we shake it off?  Forget about it?  Move on to the next opportunity?

Or do we dwell on it.  Beat ourselves up for the miss.

I think we should all take Emerson's words to heart in our games and in our lives.  In the real world we're going to make mistakes.  We're going to screw up.  We're going to make bad choices. 

When we do, the best thing to do is to move on and do better the next time. 

I've said many times that sports are life lessons.  Maybe this is one of those lessons.  Learn from your mistakes and do better next time.  Figure out what you did wrong and fix it. 

But do move on.  Do forget about it.  What's happened has happened.   What you do next--how you respond to adversity--often defines the person you are and the person you are to become.

Golden Years?

We are all getting older. There is little we can do about it.  I'm certainly there.  63 is staring me in the face.

I've heard all the clichés.  "Getting old is not for sissies."  And "60 is the new 40."  (That's a lie.)

Or my personal least favorite: "he/she looks good for his/her age."  That one reminds me too much of comments made at the funeral home.  "He certainly looks good."  Well, he looks dead too (not to be too callous).

I don't want to look good for my age.  I want to look good period. 

Wrinkled?  Sure.  Slower?  Most certainly.  Sagging where I might not like it?  Maybe.

Yes, I have the bifocals and hearing aids and maybe I can't do some of the things I used to but making excuses by using those things is just...well...making excuses.

We all want to live longer but we want to do it on our own terms.  Good health.  Sharp mind.  Able to do the things we love.

But are you doing the things today to help you get there?

It is a fact of life that most of the things that negatively impact our health in our later years are things we can do something about. 

Like our weight.  Our activity level.  Smoking.  Eating right.  And yes, even our social life.

It is a proven fact that if we have friends and an active social life we're not only going to live longer but we're going to be healthier as we age.  Check it out.

And then there's exercise.

If you exercise regularly and vigorously, pretty much all those other things are going to take care of themselves. 

Some people complain that we put too much emphasis on sports.  But we also know that active children become active adults and sports just happen to be one of our better vehicles to promote activity in children and teenagers.

Sports serve us by teaching us the joy of movement.  And the rewards of physical activity.  Never learned that?  It's never too late.

I know of lots of folks that dream of the day that they can retire.  They might even be able to tell you how many days and hours it is until retirement.

But have they adequately prepared financially for retirement? With life expectancies increasing, are you sure that the retirement plan that you've been working on for 40 years is going to last you 30 or more years more?

The embarrassing fact is that you might not have the finances to live as long as you do.

So what's the bottom line on all this?   Start preparing to be old today. 

Exercise.  Eat right.  Make new friends.  You're probably going to have to work longer than you planned.

But science and common sense both tell us that if you're going to be healthy enough to enjoy those golden years, then it starts now.

Thanks for the Mentoring!

I ran into one of my high school football coaches last week.  I hadn't seen him in...oh...I don't know.  Maybe 30 years.   

  

It didn't seem like he had changed much.  He had long ago lost a lot of weight--well over a hundred pounds while I was away at college.  I had seen his new, svelte self but, like I said, it had been a while.  We were both at an Upward basketball game for our grandchildren. 

In the brief moments that we were able to chat, I tried to tell him some of the things that he had done for me.   People kept interrupting (in a nice way).

I was able to introduce him to my daughter and a couple of the grandkids and shared something with them that he told me when I was a senior in high school.

We had just lost a really tough game that likely would keep us out of playoff contention (it did).  I was broken hearted and he came up to me, put his big arm around my shoulder, and told me that he was proud of me.  That I had given it my all.

I doubt that he realized what an impact that he had on me with that.  Sure, I remember the game.  At Cleveland.  Final score 28-35.  The player that I battled most of the night was already headed to Kentucky.

But I can feel his arm on my shoulders and hear the words he spoke even now.  And this is 45+ years later.

It was a lesson in effort.  And pride.  And maybe even perspective.

I really hope that coaches and teachers and other adults in positions to influence and lead teenagers understand how much impact their words and actions have on those in the midst of what surely is their most impressionable years.

I hope that teenagers stop to listen to the wisdom and counsel that is coming their way, sometimes in rare and special moments. 

I've already told you here (several times really) about my high school coach who remarked "if he works at it, he can be a good one" when asked if I was any good.

That comment transformed me from an underachieving slacker into someone who truly believed that if I worked hard at something, anything, that I could accomplish it.  I took that initiative, that work ethic, on to several college degrees and a career that has been maybe somewhat successful.

Don't pass up any opportunity to thank those that have been a positive influence on your life.  Coaches.  School teachers. Sunday School teachers. Scout leaders.  Maybe just the nice guy next door.

You never know when, if at all, another opportunity might arise. 

Thanks, Coach Dutton.

The Exercise Manifesto

Let's talk about exercise a bit.

There are more misconceptions about exercise than there are about pretty much everything.  Except dieting.  And that's for another day.

You've got your joggers.  Life is running. 

I used to run.  It's easy and cheap.  A good pair of running shoes is all that you absolutely have to have.  What you wear is most of the time irrelevant.

I was never a "runner." I never had to get my run in.  The only runner's high I ever had may have been due to a beer after a run.

But still I ran.  Until my knees forsook me.

You've got your weight lifters. 

The worst of the kind spend hours in the gym.  They spend more time resting between sets than they do actually exercising.

You've got your cardio kings (or queens).

They have their favorite cardio equipment in their favorite gym that they do regularly in what I suppose must be their favorite time of day.  Wearing their favorite gym duds.

I've seen people on the same piece of equipment regularly for years.  Nothing ever changes.

Some people have got to play something.  If there isn't a competition to it or some kind of game, they just won't do it.  My thing used to be basketball.   I LOVED playing basketball.  I was a Basketball Jones.

For some people it is tennis.  I used to play that too but life got in the way. 

OK, so I'm going to do something that will seem really odd.  Something that will violate every code of creative writing ever written.

I'm going to offer you the conclusion in this, the middle of the piece.

Here it is:  The best exercise program is the one that you do.

You may have discovered the most perfect exercise program in the world.  You may have found exactly what works for you.

But if you don't do it, it won't help you a bit.

Everybody is different.  And every body is different. 

What works for one person may not work for you at all.  You've got to find their niche.  Your "thing."

Oh, there are certain basic principles that you've got to folllow.

You've got to do some things that get your heart rate up.  I'll not get into the argument right now about target heart rate and how high your heart rate needs to be in order to derive benefit from the exercise but do remember this--from time to time, you've got to exercise hard enough that you can't carry on a conversation. 

Not every time.  Not all the time.  Sometimes.

Of course that depends on medical clearance and all that.  If you're past 40, make sure your personal physician approves.  (Oh...you don't have a personal physician?  Well goodness gracious, get one!)

You've got to do some things that put some stress on your muscles.

I am of the strongly held opinion that you don't need to do strength training of just one muscle or muscle group. 

Your strength training needs to be multi-joint and it needs to be functional.

What does it mean to be multi-joint?   It means that you need to be doing exercises that involve more than one joint.

A good example is the power clean.  Great exercise.  It engages your legs, hips, back, shoulders...pretty much your whole body.

A bad example is the biceps curl.  Or the bench press.  And goodness knows that the machine where you just sit and kick forward is a waste of time.

Why do we lift weights?

We lift (well, most of us anyway) to make sure that our body is strong enough to do the other things that we want to do. 

Some people lift to train for a specific sport.  For some, it is important for their job (think firefighters and EMT's).   For a lot people, we lift weights because we sit at a desk in front of a computer for long periods of time every day.

Strength training is the best (and I could argue ONLY) way to combat that.

I don't know of many people any more that lift weights just to look good.  No doubt that is true for some but then you get past your teenage years and then what is the point?

Get the picture?  We lift for solid, functional reasons.  

We lift to combat aging.   We lift so we can climb the stairs.  Or carry a child out of a burning building.  Or even play with the kids (or grandkids).

There are a million reasons that we exercise.

We exercise to be healthier, happier, and live longer.  When you get down to it, that's about it.

Why do you exercise?

Or maybe I should ask...why don't you?   

Why I Ride

I ride a bike because it is good for me.

There is no doubt at all that exercise is good for you.  Good for your heart.  Good for your health. 

Exercise reduces your blood pressure (a problem for me).  It helps to control you weight (which can lead to all manner of health problems).  Exercise gives you the strength to tolerate the burdens of every day.

I lift weights and do CrossFit but for my main method of exercising, I choose the bicycle.

I ride the bike because it helps me stay young.

If you're honest with yourself, doesn't everyone really want that? 

Let me tell you about walking into my grankids' basketball game a couple of weeks ago.  It was chilly outside so all the other grandparents were bundled up with scarves, boots, and toboggans.

I arrive on my bike after spending the morning riding around south Blount County.  I had stashed shorts and a sweatshirt in my wife's van.  I slipped those on over my bike outfit.

So I walk in with all these other grandparents and I've got on shorts with leg warmers sticking out below them (looked like leggings), a hoodie, and a ragged baseball cap. 

Get the picture?  I didn't "dress my age" at all.  Or at least by most definitions.

I don't think my grandkids were embarrassed by it at all.  They're probably used to it.  My wife has learned to expect it.  But why do we have to be concerned with all that? 

I refuse to allow candles on a birthday cake define who I am or what I do.  I believe in the pursuit of happiness and if that means riding a mountain bike faster down a hill than you think a man "my age" should or climbing Buttefly Gap on my road bike, then so be it.

I ride because it helps me do my job.

Really?  Yep, really.  Regular exercise helps keep us sharp mentally.  Studies have made that clear.

I suspect that's what you expect from me.  I know that when one of your children are injured playing sports, you want me at my best.

I ride because it is fun.

Ever ride a roller coaster?  Coming down Allegheny Loop Road is a lot like that.  Mountain biking a flowy trail?  Same thing.  Ever ride a motorcycle on The Dragon?  Fun, huh.  I find riding a bicycle much like that.

I don't ride because I have a death wish.  I know the dangers out there from riding on the same roads with vehicles that would kill me if we're in a collision but I fear teenagers texting and driving far more than any of that.

I don't ride to make you late for wherever you are going.  Those 20 seconds that it costs you in waiting to pass me safely will not change your life.

I ride because I love it.

Let Your Kids Play Everything!

When I was growing up, we played everything.  Everybody could swim.  Everybody rode a bike.  Baseball, basketball, dodgeball,  kickball.  Three-legged races.  Sack races.  Not organized sports.  We just played.

The only organized youth sport available was football so we all played that.

And despite being completely out of our demographic and without a single public court, a bunch of us played tennis.

Those people that knew me between the ages of 15 and 25 would not believe it if you told them that I didn't even own a tennis racket today.

My history with tennis goes back even before that.  When I was 10, we borrowed some old tennis rackets from Fred Chaney's grandmother (who lived next door to Little Bill Miller) and got permission to play at the McPeake's house, which was actually one of only two tennis courts in my hometown.

The other belonged to the Greer family and actually had lights.  We were able to play at both of them as long as we were quiet.  We were good kids so they knew we would be OK.  We could even use the lights at the Greer's as long as they were off by 9.

Pretty soon we were playing all the time.  I can even remember one day sweeping snow off the court to be able to play. 

About the time I got to high school, the city built a park with two tennis courts.  Needless to say, we were regulars there.  Tony, Bill, Ronnie, Teddy, Joe.  If all of us were there, we just rotated one in.  Always doubles.

There was no tennis team, no instruction.  We learned the rules from the few older guys that played.  But we couldn't get them to play us because we always beat them.

It wasn't until I left for college that the city built a swimming pool and four tennis courts across the street from my house.  Go figure.

Those people that knew me between ages 25 and 55 would not believe it if you told them that I didn't own a basketball.

I used to play all the time.  Lunchtime games on Tuesday and Thursday.  Sunday evening games.  

Pickup games at Sandy Springs Park.  I was a true "Basketball Jones" (if you remember that Cheech and Chong classic).  My last game was at age 59.

I guess I gave up tennis because of family responsibilities.  My knees took away basketball. 

Football was always my sport and I played it as long as my skill levels would allow.   Oh, I played in a couple of flag football leagues once out of college but it was never the same.

My kids did lots of different things.  Snow skiing.  Rock climbing.  Whitewater canoeing. Backpacking.   In addition to the usual youth sports of baseball, softball, soccer, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, and yes, football.

The point of all this?  Let your kids play everything.  There's a lot of good discussion right now about sports specialization--focusing on only one sport.  The consensus opinion is that it is a horrible idea.

I'd like to issue an Amen to that.  Let them have fun.  Let them try different things.  Let them develop athleticism by running, throwing, hitting. Playing tag in the back yard.  Or Red Rover. Playing Who-Can-Hit-That-Can-With-A-Rock.

Give your children the latitude to find their own sport; not the sport that you want for them.  Given the chance, their natural abilities for one sport or another will emerge.