How does a person know that he or she has made a good decision? Bad decisions seem to abound not only in our lives, but also in the lives of the children that we love. Mark Twain is credited with saying, "Good decisions come from bad decisions, which lead to good decisions."
For those of you who know me know that I turned 40 about three weeks ago. I have been trying to stay as active as I can, especially given the breakneck pace that I keep-coaching varsity baseball, being an assistant school head, a Master's Degree class every Monday night, father and husband, as well as trying to get at least some sleep occasionally to offset that loopy stare one gets during sleep deprivation.
Yet, I wouldn't have it any other way. I noticed that I didn't have enough to do, so I began playing men's baseball after a season's hiatus. A friend of mine in the Bay Area calls it Men's Little League. Today was the first game. I do the things that everyone should before beginning any rigorous activity; I eat a burrito and haul around 45 pounds of gear, which is the equivalent of a five-year old strapped to my back. Carrying around a little extra weight shouldn't be that big of an issue, right? I have seen women in the mall lugging around toddlers the size of Barry Bonds on their hips. I certainly can clean and jerk a little old bag of catcher's equipment and a stash of two-year old Milky Way Bars about 200 feet to the dugout.
Well, I arrive before the pitcher starts his warm-up tosses, and I feel my left side ache like I have just been kicked in the ribs by Frances the Talking Mule. You guessed it, I ripped some muscle before "play ball" was even barked out by the ump. Great decision!
What does any of this have to do with books? Very little to be honest. It's all about aging, if anything. Aging is one of the few things that we all do regardless of what tends to divide us as people. We see or saw our parents as their body change (thank you, Bonnie Raitt) and we feel our own lives alter and even fade a bit every time a milestone is passed.
Should I take more precautions to prevent the onset of the inevitable? Maybe. Is there a magic pill that can bring back old hair or lost virility? Yes, but why? All I know is that the decisions that give me the most pleasure are simple. They have to do with seeing the smile on my wife's face when I do some incredible deed that I didn't know would bring happiness (like folding the laundry) or the laughter of my children when I read a book where they actually get the jokes. Good decisions; it's in the way that you use them, I guess."
© 2002 by Brian W. Thomas (reprinted from A Child's Book.com--www.achildsbook.com)
