The Mind Is Willing
by John Leon
Friday the 13th. Ah yes, time to reflect on all of the supposed bad things that can happen to a person on this date. Yes, we all know the stories of Mary Leeds, who allegedly gave birth to the 13th child on the 13th and it turned into the Jersey Devil. I think what’s worse is that, as we get older, and yes I’m one of those people, you start to believe what your mind tells you to.
I’m one of those people that as a former athlete that primarily played baseball and softball for a combined 40 years, my mind still relives the days when I could do things better than some other mortals could not do. I’m not blowing my own horn, but when you make 14 consecutive all-star teams that’s not an accident.
Ah yes, the mind. We’ve all heard of it. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, mind over matter, sometimes you lose your mind, (although at my age sometimes I can’t remember where I placed it) anyway, you get the idea. Getting back to the previous paragraph, your mind can definitely play tricks on you and it really gets a charge out of seeing how far it can push your body.
Hatfield’s vs. McCoy’s, Yankees vs. Red Sox, mind vs. body, rivalries one and all. Case in point, one day a year I’m asked to play in a charity softball contest. I’m not the only one either as many of my former teammates come to relive the days when we were younger, what we used to do or how much fun it was in winning games and tournaments. I’ve only been retired for 11 years now so you would think that I’m still in pretty fair playing shape. WRONG!!!
Let’s review shall we? 40 years of competitive sports minus 11 years of retirement equals the fantasy that I can still competitively participate in a game. Stop laughing; it hurts too much to even laugh.
Every year I say the same thing, that I will no longer try this futile exercise in playing in a 7-inning softball game again. And every year I foolishly get myself prepared, just as I used to, and get laughed at by my wife and daughters. I knew it was time to retire when it took me longer to stretch and get loose than it did to actually play the game, but my mind says,” yes you can, you can go out there and perform just like you did when you were 30”. I just gotta stop listening to my mind like Pavlov’s Dog, and go out there salivating at the fact that “sure I can”.
NO I CAN’T!! That little 7-inning “charity” game that I just played gets the juices flowing and then you try to do too much, again trying to do what you USED to be able to do. One hour to get loose, one hour to play the game and seven painful days to recover. What could I have POSSIBLY been thinking? It’s almost like Lucy holding the ball for Charlie Brown to kick it and, well you know the rest.
So when your buddies try to get you to help out in that charity game or want you to get together to play touch football just like the old days, tell them that they were the old days and they were great. Then crack another beer and root them on.
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