Cheers?

Saturday, watching college football on TV. Rest-

less and reflective am I, but still alive after all

these years. The young college men from Notre

Dame and Virginia competing on the gridiron field

of play, athletic and virile as I once was myself

in days long since passed away. The touchdowns

made, and the team who made them cheerful

with high-fives, prodigious leaps and goal line

antics. And young and relevant women swinging and

swaying youthful attributes, flapping their pompon

wings as the brass band plays. Premier cheerleaders

indeed. Everyone I can see through the images pro-

jected onto my TV is 30, 40, 50-years younger than

I, the sedentary spectator at home I happen to be.

Happy and relieved am I, though, in a certain way

that I no longer have the muddle of life uncertainties

ahead of me. Oh young ones, If only you knew the

tribulations and tragedies in store for you. I think of

time—time passing before me; time—far less today

than I had yesterday; all which I have done, all I have

failed or neglected to do. Gray beard, wrinkles, arth-

ritic hips, old age, the cane I need to get me around

nowadays beside the recliner I sit in presently. Good

God, give me something, anything to cheer about.

And wouldn’t you know, the lead keeps changing sides.

I guess that’s the way the game was meant to be played.

Chris Hanch 9-29-19