Posted 2-4-20
2-4-6-8, who do I appreciate? You!!!! You!!!! Yooooooou! Thanks for visiting the Digital Cornbread table this wet Tuesday! I hope everyone is adequately recovered from the Super Bowl flu!
I am not prepared to call myself a superfan of anyone besides my Lord, my beautiful wife, my 3 kiddos, and my close/extended and church families, but I have always been a pretty solid fan of many things: bands, sports teams (Go Cardinals!!!), rainy fall days, cheesecakes and certain TV shows and movies. I have many things I follow and strive to learn about. This is not earth-shattering news, I suppose, but I do have a point (that is not covered up by my hat).
There have been times I went beyond the casual fan status, most notably in school. I played baseball in high school. I was a flame-throwing pitcher! (Note: flames come in varying temperatures. I hit a solid 60 MPH on my flames. LOL…for the non-fan, this is super slow), but I did have a good slider, a 12-6 overhand curve (nearly an eephus), I hit a lot of people with pitches (which seemed to make them less interested in feasting on my pitching), and would occasionally throw a pitch sidearm. I was always encouraged while I was pitching to hear people in the stands (a rarity for poor, lowly HS baseball players) and this fact made me a bigger fan of our HS football and basketball teams.
(Note for those who care: there is a 3rd part that I will add later)
My friends and I created a superfan group we called Hunt’s Runts (ironically, for me), named after our beloved Basketball Coach Hunt. We were super obnoxiously creative and certainly deserved to be ejected some/most games, especially against our rivals. Our purpose(?), beyond just being pains in the butt: to encourage our fellow “athletes” to “leave it on the field“.
“Leaving it on the field” is doing everything you can, to the last grunt…then grunting some more. It is the football video I put in this post from a while back. Going beyond what I/you thought possible. This is theoretical for me. I am not sure that I have ever truly “left it on the field”. I always reserve some effort in case I need it for something (Cheesecake?). Examples of times I nearly did leave it on the field:
- I once ran a full marathon. I did jog the entire time, but it took me 5:55:00 to complete said marathon. I think I finished faster than 3 people, although 20+ didn’t finish. I had at least 20 people old enough to be my parents beat me by over an hour each. The next day we walked the zoo for 4 hours with few problems.
- I once pitched 8 2/3 innings one game…at least 175 pitches. My arm was tired, but the rest of me was just fine.
- I have been married nearly 30 years and she hasn’t dressed me in pine pajamas yet, so this is a win, but I have never been the best I can possibly be even for my love, despite it being my job.
- I did some laundry one time. (Note: I shredded my wife’s rayon pantsuit into a heap. Now I only do my own clothes and only sometimes when we can afford replacements….)
- I have worked hard in every job I have ever had, but there were always slacker days and times I could have improved.
So, what in life is worth “leaving it on the field” for? Is the Super Bowl? What could be any more leaving it on the field than what Ronnie Lott did some time ago??? Is fitness worth it? Winning a game? Accomplishing a goal? I won’t answer that for you because we all have different thoughts in the value of our activities. In my humble and unbiased (LOL) opinion, if you are looking for a cause to rally around from a temporal standpoint, I submit to you that fighting to end Alzheimer’s Disease is one well worth it due to the size and scope of the problem. Reminder…the stats:
- One in 10 people age 65 and older (10 percent) has Alzheimer’s dementia.
- Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women.
- Older African-Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites.
- Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites.
So, will you consider joining me in working toward the goal of “leaving it on the field”? If you are too busy or have another cause you are passionate about, will you help here and there? Lots of help is needed. 🙂 I guess I just don’t want to fail due to lack of enough effort. If it can be done, it needs to be. 🙂
Here is one thing:
Click here to donate here to my Walk to End Alzheimer’s Team and/or walk with is this September. We have an ambitious goal this year: A cure! It will take brains, people to do clinical trials and lots and lots of $. Remember how the arts and entertainment communities fought to find treatments and a cure for AIDS? Like that but even more! The time is now for those who can to leave it on the field. Lives and memories hang in the balance!
Update: Mom is still well, as much as she can be. I will swing by again tonight to give her a hug and watch some Andy Griffith. 🙂
Weight Watchers (WW green) update: Lost 4.4 this week for 14.2 total since 1/20/20. (My first meeting was 1/27/20). For more info about WW and why I would include it in my blog, check this out:
Thank you all for visiting today! Check out the archives…lots of change over the last 18 months. We now have nearly 6,000 subscribers, over 625 FB subscribers. Soon I will write the 400th post at the table. 🙂 Thank you, Thank You, Thank You!
Note: I will leave evangelism out of this discussion despite the fact that it is even more worthy of “leaving it on the field” for. Eternity has an unfair advantage in disproving my point. 😉 I was encouraged this week in church by the senior that was baptized. Our church has a solid nursing home ministry.
#EndALZ
