In December, I went home to Ohio to watch my high school win its 2nd football state championship in a row and 6th in 11 years! I went to an all boy Catholic High School of 1200 boys. Lots of testosterone floating around that building. We were quite good at football in fact, in my four years, we only lost three regular season games. That being said, we weren’t nearly as good as the man children they have playing now.
A high school friend sent me clips of our game film from my senior year shortly after I saw him at the state championship. It is truly the first time in my life I felt old. You might be wondering why game film made be feel old…Well because it was in BLACK AND WHITE. What the !!!!!!. I felt like I was watching a Laurel and Hardy film.
It brought the sore reality that the good old days weren’t as good as today. Nope, the belief that we worked harder and had a better work ethic than the kids of today- well FILM DOESN’T LIE. There is nothing about how good we were that says we were better than these kids. HELL they average over 300 pounds on the o-line. I would take this high school team over the Packers of the 60’s in a heart beat.
Health Amnesia
My amnesia about how talented we were in football reminds me of what I call “health amnesia” with patients. Patients often have altered realities of their health. I know they have amnesia when they report their diets to me 🙂
What happens is when we are young our bodies haven’t had the accumulation of stresses so we don’t show the wear. As time accumulates, if you had poor habits or old injuries, the stresses show and viola you show these patterns and injuries. So you look back and say “I was great” but often those were the times when the seeds of destruction were laid.
Back to the State Championship game: I needed my friend Geoff and Paul to reintroduce me to so many of my classmates because my head aged and weathered so much. My friend Paul gives me crap for my lack of hair. OUCH! He still has a full head of dark hair….I challenged him to a foot race 🙂 His hip is banged up and replaced from our football days which created our lifelong friendship. Sometimes those injuries of the past show up literally years and decades later.
Well my memories are great, whether they are accurate or not :). Whether my world was in black and white or in color. I wouldn’t trade them for the world but as years accumulate with your health, it is wise to accurately assess your health so that you can intervene early.
Early intervention means less intervention!
Read past blog posts here.