About 40 years ago, I set a goal to reach the age of 100 (year 2035) and run a marathon at any speed. However, I had an accident in Ogden, Utah in the latter part of November 2019 while walking to a marriage reception; it was dark in the parking lot, and I lost my balance and fell backwards and broke my right leg and shattered my right shoulder. I had surgery the next day and ended up with two titanium rods in my body. After spending the rest of 2019 and much of 2020 for my recovery via the Riverton Care Center and then home nursing, I am now going outside my house and walking several times per week. My speed has been reduced, because I don't have normal strength in my right leg and right shoulder, and because I am walking instead of running. I don't have good balance, and I use my walker when I am outside the house; the walker helps me keep my balance so I don't have more falls.
My goal now is to reach the age of 100 and still be walking or running. The distance and speed that I walk or run is not part of my goal.
The titanium rods plus the pacemaker I had added to my body several years ago makes me a cyborg, as my son, Seth, would say. The titanium rods enable me to move around, while the pace maker keeps my heart pumping at a predetermined rate.
By mistake I deleted the first comment to this post. The author (TLC) said that I seemed to be very optimistic. I'm explaining this to give a context to my comment about my being a Scoutmaster.
ReplyDeleteI was Scoutmaster in Massachusetts for 11 years, and I learned that optimism was the only way to have success in Scouting. Once a year we had a church outing, and I could tell the difference between my scouts and those of other troops of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My boys were more mature and more able to be responsible for their own actions. During the year, we would go to summer camp as the only troop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at camp. I had no idea what my boys were doing throughout the day, but I knew that when evening came the boys would report to me.
DeleteThe climax came, one year, when the District officials didn't have enough camp sites for all the troops, and we were appointed to share a campsite with a troop from Cambridge, MA. My troop consisted of boys from the country who were used to the life style of small towns. The Cambridge boys were from a big city and were used to the life-style of the big city. Imagine, country boys getting along with city boys. It was one of the best summer camp experience we had, even though we were the opposite of the Cambridge troop. We had a great time at camp!
I realized that the classes, held in daytime, were not the whole camp experience, so I taught in our campsite the merit badge on fingerprinting. I had boys from both troops come to me to get the merit badge. They knew I could teach them about fingerprinting, but it was their decision to get the badge outside of a class.
I remember the time we marched down to a particular place where the Cambridge Scoutmaster was to be inducted into the Order of the Arrow (OA). There were over 100 scouts there. The Cambridge Scoutmaster was gone from his troop, and I had both troops to keep quiet. We waited about an hour before the induction took place. Imagine, a group of young boys waiting, while standing, for an hour for a meeting to begin. At the beginning of the hour wait, I explained to the Cambridge boys what the OA was all about and that it was an honor for their Scoutmaster to be inducted into the OA. I asked the boys to patiently wait for their Scoutmaster to join them, and then I left them and joined my own troop. For an hour the boys from Cambridge talked quietly among themselves, but they did not mess around or make a lot of noise. They had no adults looking over them, but they behaved as adults, even though they were not adults. I was already a member of the OA and didn't participate in the OA induction.
On another occasion, I learned that a Priest age boy, who was giving his Bishop problems, loved genealogy, so when I met with the boy I asked him if he would like to have a class on genealogy for his Eagle Project. He said "yes". I met with him for several meetings, and he planned the class. He ended up having about half of the instructors not be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the class was a great time for all. Our Stake President said the class should be given in each town in the Stake. The boy stopped giving his Bishop problems, and he received his Eagle. The boy served a mission for the Church, and he was, as far as I know, very successful in his later life.
Oh, by the way, when I taught knots to the scouts, Sara, my five-year-old daughter was with us, and she learned the knots faster than the scouts.
Maybe at another time, I'll tell about a Teacher-age boy who came to an overnight camp with no food or sleeping bag. He brought only a frying pan and a small, thin baby blanket. It was a great time for the boy officers of the troop to be leaders, an