Just Some Odds And Ends

“I used to be hell on wheels
back when i was younger man
now my body says, “you can’t do this boy”

but my pride says, “oh, yes you can

I ain’t as good as I once was
that’s just the cold hard truth
I still throw a few back, talk a little smack
when I’m feelin bullet proof
so don’t double dog dare me now
’cause I’d have to call your bluff
Toby Keith- As Good As I Once Was


I love that song, the lyrics just feel so, real. I am not old, not even close to it but I notice a few new aches and pains have made themselves at home. There are days where I can hear cracks, squeaks and other assorted noises come from various places around my body. I bruise more easily than I used to and the recovery time is a little bit longer, but overall I feel good.

I can’t play ball every day without noticing the impact and effect the pounding has. By the end of the week my legs feel a little rubbery and my back aches, but to a certain extent that is due to the punishment I put myself through. When I play ball I play at one speed, full. It is the only way that I can keep up and frankly I get so little time on the court I am determined to play to near exhaustion. I love that high.

Tonight the Detroit Pistons went down in flames. They are a very good team, but they are not great, not even close to it. Last year they managed to beat my Lakers and it was a very bitter defeat because had the Lakers been injury free they would have prevailed, they lost to a team that was not as good as them, but I have to give the Pistons some credit because they were hungrier. They worked harder, outhustled the Lakers and they won.

But this year we saw them for what they were, a flash in the pan. A solid team that has shining moments, but is just not good enough to be considered great. But I respect their not giving up and their work ethic because talent is meaningless if you do not use it. If you are unwilling to work at it whatever talent you have is meaningless.

Today I encountered some people who made me shake my head. They justified terror, explained and excused the acts of people who murder indiscriminately. They tried to give license to these murderers because they cannot conceive of evil. They cannot imagine that people would murder others because of hatred. They pointed at the Holocaust and claimed that the numbers are unreal, that 6 million dead is propaganda, hype and hysteria.

They disappoint me and in truth today they hurt me. It doesn’t happen all that often because I learned long ago that evil does exist, that there are people who would kill me, slaughter those I hold dear for the most trivial of reasons. It saddens me to admit that this blackness exists. Most of the time I feel like I walk in the sunshine, but there are times in which I enter the darkness and today was one of those moments.

I am irritated that the country is so polarized that just using certain expressions can negatively influence a person’s proclivity to be open and understanding. Life is not always black and white, it is not always an “us versus them” world, but then again it is not all sunshine and roses either.

I don’t have the energy to maintain this line of thought so I think that I’ll try a a new post.

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