Playing

Picked up a rubber ball today for the first time in nearly a year. Bounced it. Felt good. A fellow pilgrim who has known through the years, like me, the delight and comfort of social exercise through handball, paddleball and the like, agreed to toss the ol' rubber sphere around with me this morning and, despite a dew point as high as a great golf score, we played semi-competitively for more than a half hour. It does clear one's mind and the heart and lungs. All three seem to say: "Yeah! That's what we want! Shut down that P.C. and boob tube once in a while and start the engine of the 'machine' that was given to you at no charge."

With bodies that leave no doubt that the receding images in our respective metaphorical rearview mirrors were those of our youth, the memory and joy of telling the old "mortal coil" to perform a physical task and having it obey (somewhat) is the epitome of an opportunity for thanksgiving. Never a natural athlete, the good Lord has blessed me with good health and a normal, if not a superlative or especially attractive physicality that allows me to enjoy the gift of this life and the companionship of others through the natural stress and invigorating tension of scampering about a playground almost like an exuberant ten year old. My chatterboxing inclinations, and hopefully mirth giving remarks during playtime, are intensified as the mind and body are allowed to flourish, i.e. romp as any sentient being, biped, quadruped or millipied was meant to do, before sedentary mentation and other duties and confinements of civilization held sway over most of our lives (at least those of we so-called humans).

With the "Dog Days" nearly upon us, the realization that summer, like life itself, is finite and fleeting, concentrates the mind and invites the hesitant, like me, to get moving. Natation and angling, happy endeavors that I've always associated with the waning days of this season, because my Dad's one week vacations, taken just prior to Labor Day, always included these activities, are now, once again, subjects for anticipation and hopeful planning. To look forward to something, in addition to looking back and cherishing golden memories: that's a balanced goal worthy, I believe, of the effort to achieve it.