HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE GETTING OLD?

 HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE GETTING OLD?

This is not a trick question. All of you will be thinking that the answer is obvious, but I have an example that I know that none of you have ever considered. It just happened to me recently.

When you get older you are faced with many very significant changes in your life. On the one hand, some aspects of your life begin to shrink - your patience, your life savings and your eyesight. On the other, some aspects just continue to grow - your body mass index, your number of grey hairs, and your ability to fall asleep at any hour of the day. On the third hand, there are those lifelong practices that just evolve over time into new forms that illustrate that our life is a circle in many ways. Let me tell you that story!

As a youngster, I participated with my friends in all kinds of games and sports. We played baseball, football, hide and seek, marbles, kick the can, and just had fun. When my two sons were small, I tried to pass my love of baseball on to them and they both played Little League baseball. As a young dad, one of my greatest joys was going to their games and watching them play. I was a faithful spectator at all of their activities including hockey, track and field, volleyball, and soccer.

My watching sports eventually led to me coaching both Wayne and Paul in Little League. It was a highlight of every Spring for eight years to spend my time with them practising and coaching their teams. After they became adults there was little occasion to watch them or coach them as it would certainly not have been cool to be watching them with their teen or adult buddies playing pickup games. So my spectator life disappeared into limbo for about twenty years.

My passion for viewing sports was resurrected when my grandson Sawyer and granddaughter Helen began to play sports at an early age. It was a hoot watching them as five or six year olds play soccer while holding hands with a team mate and scoring into whichever goal was handy. It wasn’t highly skilled competition but it was fun. I watched Sawyer play soccer, baseball, football, hockey, ultimate frisbee etc. and enjoyed every 

minute. 

While Sawyer has transitioned into Drama and Improv, Helen has taken to competitive soccer. She is quite skilled and I have enjoyed watching her develop her soccer skills for the past six years. I am already beginning to feel sad that as she approaches her high school years that she may find other attractions beside soccer and my viewing days will be over.

Well, that is not the end of my story. I always loved watching my boys and my grandchildren compete as children, but now my advancing years have led me to watching a team sport that I never anticipated becoming interested in. I now journey to watch Senior Men’s Slow Pitch Softball! And the reason for this blog, to illustrate my aging process, is that I am now watching my son Wayne play in this 55 year and older league. The little kid who I watched cut his teeth in Little League is now playing Seniors’ Softball! How is that for an indication of how old I have become! Yikes!