Young at Heart or Just Old Fart
Am I old? I don’t know. I feel old. I remember feeling young and I’m not quite sure when that changed. What it means to feel young, as in “I feel open minded and hopeful” is very different from “I feel young. My knees and back have no pain at all.”
This sentiment is painfully obvious as I stand surrounded by heaving, focused youth. They surround me gulping air and turning it into power. They aren’t trying to focus their energy, or even do something to “stay in shape.” They are just being young.
I grimace when I roll my leg on a foam tube at home in the living room. My goal is to be able to simply move my limbs as nature intended, not execute quick, accurate movements that will win me medals, but simple moments that if maintained will keep me out of a wheelchair someday.
These are high school swimmers. They aren’t olympians, they aren’t even a good team, they are just a good example of youth. Able to focus their mind on the goal of moving their body through the water as quickly as possible. Their bodies able to focus on that task with little preparation and virtually no caution. They throw their bodies into the water and tear and grab themselves to the other side and back. They get out and their bodies recover sucking in air and breaking up lactic acid.
The breathing is all I can hear as I try to remember to at least stand up straight.
