REVERSE VISION

A good night's rest has me refreshed from the previous all-nighter. 

This morning we watched the women's Olympic triathlon.  First, they swam two laps in the Seine River (1-mile course), got out of the water and ran up a set of stairs to jump on their bikes to ride 25 miles, ending with a 6.2-mile run.  

Can't help but wonder about the constant wear and tear on their joints.  If the rest of us suffer with joint inflammation and pain, doesn't it only make sense that their risk of cartilage erosion and joint damage would be magnified in proportion? 

After living through 7-1/2 decades, we have the earned ability to see life in reverse. We can identify clearly the things that have helped us and the things that have hurt us.  It's not within me to envy these athletes, because they have reached these almost insurmountable fetes only by giving up other parts of their lives.  One almost feels sorry for what they put themselves through.  And, for what?  There will come a day when their children will wonder what to do with the gold, the silver or bronze medal that they're left with.  Oh, this sounds cynical, but it's simply reverse vision talking.  In my younger years, I only wanted to be an achiever and worked my a__ off to achieve what was within my grasp.  I remember going to work and having to take time off one afternoon to go to the doctor.  I had walking pneumonia.  Despite the coughing and the tiredness, I worked and pushed myself to the point of total exhaustion.  Now, I ask myself why I didn't take advantage of the sick-time hours that just kept building up somewhere in a computer.  Kids today aren't that focused on achieving, and in many ways I'm able to understand why.  They've watched the older generations and learned from us, too.  

It saddens me to watch the Olympian athletes performing that one and final fete, only to have a mishap and not achieve that perfect performance.  The defeat they suffer, the pain and suffering of not being the best they can be after years and years of hard work, well, I wouldn't ever want to endure that kind of personal disappointment.    

Don't know where today's thoughts are going, they're simply bouncing from my brain to the screen.  Bottom line for any of us is to be okay with where we are, who we are, and how we choose to spend the brief time allotted to us.  Personal failure, in some form, is part of every life.