FOURTH QUARTER KICK-OFFFOURTH QUARTER--DON'T GIVE UP
Even in grade school--although I was shunned as a baseball player--I had an edge on playing football. I could lob a pass whole bunches of yards, with fair accuracy. I could fire a short-yardage pass for a quick few yards, or a score. I loved it, (the girls loved it, too!), and, at age of 12, I felt good for the first time since age 5--before I had entered that horrible slice of time called "school".
The guys found out I could throw a football pretty good, and connect to a player at a designated spot, but then came the problem. Fearing injury to my "musician" hands, my parents would not sign for me to play football in high school. Those dreams of being finally accepted by my peers melted into nothingness. High school head coach personally approached to ask me to work out with the team. When I told him I played a violin, he called me a "Sissy", referring to the lowest form of life on earth (if you're a young man, age 14).
So after that, and for 60 years more, life happened. And my life is now in the fourth quarter. The game has not ended, there are passes ahead, yards to gain, downs to play. Every football game is decided in the fourth quarter.
Finishing the game is a matter of heart as much as talent because everybody is spent and this is where desire has to come to the front. You learn a lot about a player and a team in the fourth quarter. Also about life, what is needed to keep the engine purring, until it sputters and dies.
I am learning a lot about myself in the final quarter. There are still blue highways to ride, mountains to climb, sunsets to silhouette, colorful sunrises and flowers to admire, birds and animals to speak with, and peeps to meet and greet.
My very life I owe to Alcoholics Anonymous. I'd so like the time and energy to devote the first part of this fourth quarter to attending meetings up the east coast and into the midwest of U.S., God willing. To this end I am considering a solo trip--exciting to me--of 1000 to 5000 miles, riding my Suzuki scooter.
NOTE: I wrote "CONSIDERING!" OK? But each day I grow more in the belief this can happen. All doctor, dental visits are due within next ten days. And I now have a genuine U.S. passport--which will get me in and out of the state of Georgia -grin!
YA NEVER KNOW!
Prayers for me now, please. I need them. Thank you.
Peace.
Steve E
TRIVIA
Q. Isn't the Cape of Good Hope the southernmost tip of Africa?
A. Nope. Cape Agulhas, 90 miles away, is 32 miles farther south.
Source: L. M. Boyd's "CURIOSITY SHOP"
