Sunday, July 29, 2007
Whew...
So I have been in Las Vegas for the last few days and I got a chance to visit some friends after meeting with some really groovy clients. It was a great visit.
On the way out I watched a movie n my palm pilot. I watched Rocky Balboa. I know bad reviews, seemingly bad idea, old boxer, young boxer, blood bath etc. etc.
Well I have to disagree. I watched this movie like I watched the first Rocky movie, open minded and remembering that it is supposed to be an escape from reality.
I cried throughout the entire movie. This was to the "aging and could have been but never was" athlete the best movie I have seen dealing with the residual feelings and emotions of never quite having the feeling of completion. Even the guys who play professional sports, if they were good, when they finally hang it up, there is always something left over and for some it is hard to deal with.
Some turn to drugs, some to business and some sink into a depression so deep they can only live in the "Glory Days". I have a friend of mine who I went to high school with who played one season of high school football his senior year. Every time I get together with him, not often enough, but still when I do see him, two beers into the evening and I am being whisked back into the days of high school football, and some random kindness that I showed him in the middle of a game. To him this was the pinnacle of his athletic career. Take this same feeling and spread it over the course of 10 more years, or 14, or on the extreme 20. You find yourself wondering if you did give as well as you got, and was there anything more that you could have done.
The feelings of accomplishment, and in most cases teamwork is what drives most athletes to continue in a business environment. That draw of being part of a team, is as strong as any addiction. I have these same feelings on a daily basis. I love being part of a group of people that accomplish a common goal, with individual talents working together towards that goal.
Rocky Balboa, was a great movie on how to handle those feelings. Ok not so much how to handle those feelings but more to the like on the fact that those feelings are present and dealing with them is the only way to either accept them or crush them once and for all so you don't spend the rest of days living in the glory years.
I know the critics and most of the general public thought that this was another Rocky, another underdog beats a bigger and better fighter, and in the end he gets the girl, respect, the money, and love of a nation. It was not, it was a film about how to deal with the left over wanting and needing of unfinished, or abruptly ended athleticism.
This movie made me think deeply about my life, the life I used to lead and trying to overcome the urge to become something I may not be. It opened my eyes to a need that has been crying out to be filled in some way, some how, that I have yet found. Hopefully I will figure out what is missing from my life's puzzle and fix the powerful yearning that makes me think I can still play with the big boys. Even if my 40th is tomorrow.
On the way out I watched a movie n my palm pilot. I watched Rocky Balboa. I know bad reviews, seemingly bad idea, old boxer, young boxer, blood bath etc. etc.
Well I have to disagree. I watched this movie like I watched the first Rocky movie, open minded and remembering that it is supposed to be an escape from reality.
I cried throughout the entire movie. This was to the "aging and could have been but never was" athlete the best movie I have seen dealing with the residual feelings and emotions of never quite having the feeling of completion. Even the guys who play professional sports, if they were good, when they finally hang it up, there is always something left over and for some it is hard to deal with.
Some turn to drugs, some to business and some sink into a depression so deep they can only live in the "Glory Days". I have a friend of mine who I went to high school with who played one season of high school football his senior year. Every time I get together with him, not often enough, but still when I do see him, two beers into the evening and I am being whisked back into the days of high school football, and some random kindness that I showed him in the middle of a game. To him this was the pinnacle of his athletic career. Take this same feeling and spread it over the course of 10 more years, or 14, or on the extreme 20. You find yourself wondering if you did give as well as you got, and was there anything more that you could have done.
The feelings of accomplishment, and in most cases teamwork is what drives most athletes to continue in a business environment. That draw of being part of a team, is as strong as any addiction. I have these same feelings on a daily basis. I love being part of a group of people that accomplish a common goal, with individual talents working together towards that goal.
Rocky Balboa, was a great movie on how to handle those feelings. Ok not so much how to handle those feelings but more to the like on the fact that those feelings are present and dealing with them is the only way to either accept them or crush them once and for all so you don't spend the rest of days living in the glory years.
I know the critics and most of the general public thought that this was another Rocky, another underdog beats a bigger and better fighter, and in the end he gets the girl, respect, the money, and love of a nation. It was not, it was a film about how to deal with the left over wanting and needing of unfinished, or abruptly ended athleticism.
This movie made me think deeply about my life, the life I used to lead and trying to overcome the urge to become something I may not be. It opened my eyes to a need that has been crying out to be filled in some way, some how, that I have yet found. Hopefully I will figure out what is missing from my life's puzzle and fix the powerful yearning that makes me think I can still play with the big boys. Even if my 40th is tomorrow.
