"Don't Look Back"

"Ask me how good I used to be"

I remember it was reported that the figure skater, Scott Hamilton wore a T-shirt with this phrase on it when he was working as a commentator at a competition after he was 'past his prime' as a competitive skater (I'm unable to verify this through google, so you'll just have to trust my over 40 brain on this one!). I've quoted the phrase pretty often-I should get a t-shirt!--because it so often seems to fit. Having been pretty active trying to keep up with my husband and bro-in-law through the early years of my marriage, I got to be decent at kneeboarding and wakeboarding, snow skiing, and even did some pretty 'gnarly' mountain biking trips.

Now, when I say 'decent', I'm not talking "impress virile, adventurous young men with my amazing aerial 360's" decent. I'm talking, 'wow, you're a mom of 2 kids and you can get a foot of air when you jump the wake behind the boat' decent. (I actually was able to do 360's on the kneeboard, but if you've done any kneeboarding, you know that's not that hard). It was exciting pushing my limits, and the bros were usually pretty encouraging ("come on, don't be a wuss, it's only a black diamond run!"). In my high school years, the closest I got to being 'athletic' was being scorekeeper for the girls softball team. Yup, that pathetic. The team I had the most success with was the forensics team. As in, speech team--'prose & poetry' division. I rocked in the duet competitions. I was even asked to be on the local college team before I got married. Stop snickering. It is not becoming.

Anyway, as our kids grew up, they got to be gnarly, awesome snow skiiers/boarders and waterskiiers, even doing some mountain biking (oddly, more my daughter than my son, although he has his own great skills). I found myself falling into the "I used to be able to...." trap as my own skills were waning. Sometimes due to injuries and wrist issues, something I seem to be plagued with, and sometimes, though it pains me to admit it....due to just getting older.

As my husband says, "it's not that you can't do the same things, it's just that it takes longer to recover from doing the same things you did when you were younger". So you begin to count the cost, and somehow it's often just not worth it to be able to impress someone who already loves you anyway (your family) or someone who likes you for you (your friends AND family, if you're lucky).

(you can see here the hubby is reaaallly slowing down...)

I thought about this as I read an interview with Mick Jagger in today's Parade Magazine. He's now 65--waaaayy older than me--and has what appears to be washboard abs and great hair. His face shows a map of a lifetime of partying and rocking, but he's amazingly well preserved. He mentioned that he has to make choices now since he "can’t party as hard and go onstage the next day" and still do a good show.

How difficult for you, Mick!

I liked what he had to say about looking back though:

“My thing is, if I don’t constantly try to move forward, I’m afraid that I’ll just get lost in the welter of nostalgia. I’m not really much of a looking-back person. I mean, I don’t mind having a laugh talking about things, but I don’t really get into it. Otherwise you end up like one of these football players sitting in a bar, talking about how you made that play in the game in 1975. You don’t want to be there.”

So, don't ask me how good I used to be. I'd like to still be that person in some ways, but darn it, you can't always get what you want.