Young at Heart

This message is to those of us who are growing older and those who will get there before you know it. I'm always hearing people complain about growing old. I see them "give up" on life and act old when there is still usefulness in their lives. As I get older my knees pop when I get up, my back aches, I need glasses to read, my hair is gray and a little thinner and the joints in my hands struggle with arthritis. However, in reality as we grow older our age is really in our minds. Of course we are physically limited and can't do at 60+ what we could do at 20, but that doesn't mean we have to act old. To be old doesn't have to mean to be useless. It doesn't have to mean outdated. We don't have to be seen as people caught in the past.

Jimmy Durante (I guess this shows my age even mentioning his name) sang a song written by Johnny Richards with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh entitled "Young at Heart" Here are the words:

Fairy tales can come true,
It can happen to you,
If your young at heart.
For it's hard you will find
To be narrow of mind
If you're young at heart.
You can go to extremes
With impossible dreams,
You can laugh
When your dreams
Fall apart at the seams.
And life becomes exciting
With each passing day,
And love is either in your heart
Or on it's way.
Don't you know
That it's worth
Every treasure on earth
To be young at heart.
And as rich as you are
You're much better by far,
To be young at heart.
And if you should survive
To a hundred and five,
Look at all you'll derive
By just being alive.
Now here is the best part,
You have a head start,
If you are amongst the very young...
At heart."

Following is a video sent to me of a couple in their 90's at the Mayo Clinic. It shows life can still be fun as we continue to grow older.

Remember: "The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old." Proverbs 20:29

The Farmer and the Lord

In this life many of us have the tendency to dwell on the negatives of life, how bad things are getting, things we don't like or don't have and so on. We ignore the positives as a result fail to see all the good that's happening around us. I've always liked this little poem by Jim Wilson. It makes us stop, think and be grateful for what we have and not just whine about what we don't.

THE FARMER AND THE LORD

(by Jim Wilson)

(Words as performed by Jim Reeves on the Grand Ole Opry Show)

While restin' one evenin' by the side of the road.
I saw an old farmer in a field he'd just hoed.

His face was all wrinkled and browned by the wind,
And he was talkin' to the Lord, just like you'd be talkin' to a friend.

Well, Sir, he said in a voice calm and quiet.
Them corn tassels need sackin', but, uh, got no string to tie it.

Had no rain in so long the fields are mighty dusty,
And it's been so unbearable hot that the kids are even gettin' fussy.

Now that grass down in the pasture, should be knee high.
If we could just have a little shower Lord, It might keep the cow from going dry.

Aw, but listen to me talkin' Lord, you'd think I was ungreatful.
Why, if you didn't know me so well, you'd think I was downright hateful.

You'd think I'd forgot about the new calf you sent,
The money in the mail that took care of the rent.

Ma's cold's better and Johnny's home from the Navy,
And that good Sunday dinner of chicken, dumplin's and gravy.

And the new preacher you sent us Lord, he's sure a fine young man.
Why he's just been convertin' them sinners to beat the band.

Well, guess I'll be moseyin' along Lord, won't take no more of your time.
Guess there's pleanty of folks hereabouts waitin' to ring your line.

Evenin' to you Lord and watch over us tonight.
And don't you worry about us none Lord, cause everythings gonna be alright.

The Ordeal

At 8:30 on December 11, 1965 I began an ordeal that would last for the next six months. When I couldn't stand up without help on the sideline Coach Gray called for the doctor to come down. After some preliminary tests Dr. Apple decided that I should go to the hospital for x-rays.

At the hospital, not really knowing the extent of my injury I was put in a wheel chair with my jersey and shoulder pads removed over my head without regard to what injury there may be. I was taken to the x-ray room where the technician moved me in all sorts of directions to get pictures of my shoulders and neck. Then is was back to a stretcher where I lay on my back waiting for the results.

The next thing I remember is a doctor coming up to me and saying, "lay very still and don't move." This was an odd request since I had been moved every which way since tackling the player on the field. Then I heard the doctor say that I had crushed the fifth cervical vertebrae. I was wheeled to an operating room where they prepared to drill a couple of holes in my head and put me in traction. While waiting a group of doctors came in and moved me to the side of the room while they rushed in a man from an automobile accident into the same room. As they frantically worked on him I heard the final comments "It's no use. He's dead."

For the next 7 weeks I was in traction in a foster frame. To turn me over I had to have a canvas bed like the one I was lying on placed on top of me, bolted to the bed and the whole bed turned, removing then removing the part that I had been lying on. It was 7 weeks of lying flat on my back or stomach.

At the end of this time I was taken to an operating room where I was put in a plaster cast. It rested on my hips, covering my back, chest and head. The only openings were for the arms and then around my head for my face, ears, throat and top of my head. This 20# plus cast would be with me for the next 6-7 weeks. The only pivot place would be my hips. This was the only time I cried during the entire 6 month ordeal. At this time I felt trapped. The only good thing was I could now walk around and sit in a chair. Of course whether lying down or sitting, I was always on a rock. I'm sure I was scary looking, looking like a zombie. I know I was to my youngest brother when I first came home.

The day finally came when I went into have the cast removed. That was the happiest day of the entire ordeal. For the next several months I'd be in a neck brace, but when I sat down on the hard vinyl seat of our Falcon Futura I felt like I was sitting on nice fluffy pillow. Now I could take a shower, get my hair cut, drive a car and lie on a nice comfortable bed.

Then in June of 1966 I was able to take off the brace and resume a more normal life. My future would be changed however. There would be no college football, no military service and arthritis in my neck whenever the weather changed too drastically. But there was no more paralysis and I was able to move on with life.

Every day I realize how fortunate I was to be where I am today. Every once in a while I look back I wonder at times how I made it through this ordeal so easily. Then the answer comes as easily as the question. It was the support of friends and loved ones. I received hundreds of cards and letters from the people of Plano as well as places far away from my hometown. I knew I was in the thoughts and prayers of thousands of people, most of whom I had never met and never would.

The week following my injury the Plano Wildcats went on to win their first state championship and was on the road to become one of the best high school football programs in the state of Texas. Upon returning my teammates presented me with the game ball from the state championship. I'm looking at it as I sit here writing this blog. It's a Spalding J5-V. It's just a football to most people, but to me it's the love of group of my brothers that I'll never forget.

"If one falls down, a friend can help him up. But pity the man who fall and has no one to help him up." Ecclesiastes 4:10 I survived because of those who were there to help me up.

A Night to Remember

Many of us, and we all will at some time, have had a life changing event occur in our lives that changed the course of our destiny. These events usually make us step back and look at life differently than before. They sometimes give us wisdom and a strong desire to succeed in ways we could never had imagined. Others send us into a downward spiral that infiltrates every part of our lives. In many cases the same event could be the cause of either scenario. That's all determined on how we personally choose to use the event.

One such event happened to me on December 11, 1965 in Wichita Falls, Texas. Our high school football team, the Plano Wildcats, was only one game away from reaching the state AA championship game. We stepped on the field that night against a strong, highly favored team, the Iowa Park Hawks. Most papers were picking the Hawks by two touchdowns and to be the northern Texas representative in the title game.

The year had started out rough for me. I had had three injuries, a bad ankle sprain that hobbled me in the first game, a broken collar bone in another game kept me out another 6 weeks and a bad hip bruise that sidelined me in yet another. But this was my senior year and I loved football so I'd try to get back in the groove in the midst of these trials. As a result of all the injuries and having to be replaced at tailback I was now placed in the position of offensive and defensive end. I must have been about the smallest defensive end in the state at 5'7" and 150 lbs. (Of course the 150 lbs was what was on the program which was a slight exaggeration of 7 or 8 lbs.).

The event that changed my life happened in the first quarter with the score tied 0-0. On this particular play my job was to cover the split end to my side and turn any runner to the inside to trap him in the midst of our pursing line. On this particular play Iowa Parks top runner came around the end and I held my position to turn him inside. As he came around the end the runner didn't have much of a choice. He could either turn up field into a group of 6' 190 lb. linemen or challenge me and my much smaller stature. I held my position, planted by cleats in the sod and took him on planting my head firmly in his stomach.

The next thing I remember is a slow motion fall backwards. I don't remember being knocked out, but when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw were coaches hovering over me. To the best of my recollection the first thing that I said was "I can't move coach". There was no panic, no fear and oddly enough no pain., but I was paralyzed from the neck down. The coach's response to my comment was "You're just scared". Looking back on it I think he was the one scared. I just couldn't move.

The paralysis lasted a short time I'm guessing since before long I could move my leg. My concern at the time was holding up the game so I asked the coaches to carry me off the field. This act in itself could have been devastating due to the later findings. At the sideline our manager helped me to the bench. A short time later the coach asked if I was ready to go back into the game. I raised about 6 inches off the bench and sat back down. I had no strength to stand up. It was then that the doctor came down and decided that I needed to be taken to the hospital.

I had broken my neck, the 5th cervical vertebrae. The word I heard from the doctor was "crushed". I was lucky to able to move at all. Football was over. The ordeal that followed would be tough for an eighteen year old. I'll discuss that in the following post. Yet I'm blessed with a full recovery. So many others have not been as fortunate. To this day when I see someone hurt on the football field the first thing I look at is their legs. As they lie still on the turf I look for sign of movement. If he moves his leg I have a sigh of relief.

I have seen other boys loose the ability to use their arms or legs because of such an accident and I hurt for them and with them. I always think, "that could be me!"

I do not know why I was so fortunate. I do know however that it changed the way I view life. God gives us this short life and we can use it for all sorts of things. The one thing we never know is exactly how long we have to accomplish them. We can use our life to make a difference or we can waste it. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3 that there is a time for everything.,"a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and an time to laugh, at time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, at time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

The decision on how we use life changing events is up to us. They are a time to pay attention.

Oh, by the way we won the game 40-8!