erod
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It's a funny thing, getting old. You see it in the mirror, and you feel it in your bones, but you don't really sense it in your soul. You think and feel and fear and excite much the same as you did when you were 20, or even 10.
If you're blessed, you can timestamp your life episodically in personal meaning. It comes not just in memories, tragedy, accomplishments and kids, it also reminds in tastes and smells and feelings that you couldn't describe in a million characters. It just is. Because.
My favorite meaningfully meaningless linear life marker is this crazy game of football. More specifically, Cowboy football. It's carved indelibly into my "23-and-me", and it bridges all the gaps of age and time and change. It doesn't really make sense why, which is why it makes so damn much sense.
I've seen a lot of Cowboys football, and I especially love how it reaches, intentionally, to both the future and past at the same time. By my count, I'm on about my 5th era of America's most beloved and behated team, and I can divide those eras by an embarrassment of quarterback riches, with only a smidge of lack thereof. I came on board shortly after Staubach arrived from his Marvel duties, and rode shotgun through White, Aikman, Romo, and now Dak.
There were a couple of dark periods at that position along the way, but fortunately, I was in college during the first one, and in the throes of building my retirement egg during the second, so I came out unscathed without need of therapy. I survived.
It's not just me, which is what makes it so great. It warms my heart the way the 88s celebrate each other. To see Emmitt and Dorsett sitting side-by-side at the games, watching Zeke hurdle this era, it just wells me up inside. There's King Staubach attending every game, invested heavily in the outcome with the same vigor as us. Lilly, Too Tall, Woody, Big Nate, Mel, Cliff, and Charlie....they all relish in it, too.
So when Drew stood on that stage and punched Philly right in their @#!&-ing mouth, again, I physically stood up and punched the sky. I caught myself. I looked around. Nobody was in the room. I had a moment of self-reflection and audit, but I just shrugged and laughed.
To hell with it. I ain't growing up.
If you're blessed, you can timestamp your life episodically in personal meaning. It comes not just in memories, tragedy, accomplishments and kids, it also reminds in tastes and smells and feelings that you couldn't describe in a million characters. It just is. Because.
My favorite meaningfully meaningless linear life marker is this crazy game of football. More specifically, Cowboy football. It's carved indelibly into my "23-and-me", and it bridges all the gaps of age and time and change. It doesn't really make sense why, which is why it makes so damn much sense.
I've seen a lot of Cowboys football, and I especially love how it reaches, intentionally, to both the future and past at the same time. By my count, I'm on about my 5th era of America's most beloved and behated team, and I can divide those eras by an embarrassment of quarterback riches, with only a smidge of lack thereof. I came on board shortly after Staubach arrived from his Marvel duties, and rode shotgun through White, Aikman, Romo, and now Dak.
There were a couple of dark periods at that position along the way, but fortunately, I was in college during the first one, and in the throes of building my retirement egg during the second, so I came out unscathed without need of therapy. I survived.
It's not just me, which is what makes it so great. It warms my heart the way the 88s celebrate each other. To see Emmitt and Dorsett sitting side-by-side at the games, watching Zeke hurdle this era, it just wells me up inside. There's King Staubach attending every game, invested heavily in the outcome with the same vigor as us. Lilly, Too Tall, Woody, Big Nate, Mel, Cliff, and Charlie....they all relish in it, too.
So when Drew stood on that stage and punched Philly right in their @#!&-ing mouth, again, I physically stood up and punched the sky. I caught myself. I looked around. Nobody was in the room. I had a moment of self-reflection and audit, but I just shrugged and laughed.
To hell with it. I ain't growing up.
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