Christensen: One Last Hurrah

By Todd Christensen, The Mtn. Insider
May 15, 2012

It was a difficult track meet this past weekend in Colorado Springs as chilly weather held the marks down and it became somewhat of a battle of attrition for the combatants.  

Congratulations to Daryl Anderson and his young women for repeating their victory of the indoor season outdoors for the TCU Horned Frogs.  Likewise, kudos to Ralph Lindemann, who decisively won on his home track, but in truth likely would have been victorious anywhere else in the Conference as a well-balanced men team was a decisive victor.

On the way out after having completed the interviews, I noticed a number of the young women from the various schools in the Conference arm-in-arm as they went to the bus. I will concede that I am not a touchy-feely kind of guy, but this affection was warranted based upon whom I recognized. A lot of these young ladies were seniors, and as such, were completing their athletic careers.  While the men were not as affectionate, those in the same boat were still somewhat nostalgic and were now looking ahead to finishing school, getting a job, and moving forward with their lives.

If you were to total up all of those who actually go on beyond the collegiate ranks in sports, it would still be considerably less than one-percent.  That elite group, of course, is the one that we pay homage to every night on ESPN or whatever sports entity we patronize.  What of the others?  It has always been fascinating to me how in the course of a sports conversation it can drift so easily to the last competitive level some of the conversationalists have been in. And if for whatever reason they won a state title or a collegiate championship of any kind, the verbiage escalates into a detailed trip down memory lane.  

There is something to be said for a prolonged adolescence.  Call it the Peter Pan Syndrome - never wishing to grow up, but I think it’s something else.  In sports, there is a scoreboard, or in track and field, a stopwatch or a tape.  There is an objective measurement to the success garnered and nothing subjective about it - you win or you lose.  Such clarity is lost in the real world.

Paul in First Corinthians 13:11 states that "… when I became a man I put away childish things."  Yes, there is a time for our athletic endeavors to be in a rearview mirror but the memories are welcome to linger as long as they like. And more often than not, such recollections are edifying and pleasant.

Sports have a way of elevating the mundane. 
See all of Todd Christensen's blog entries HERE.