Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

In the midst of Brett Favre retiring, this easily became back-page news.  Yet, Tuesday was a sad day.  An important person in American pop culture died.  His name was Ernest Gygax.  Do you know who he is?  Okay, that might have been a bit unfair.  He was better known as E. Gary Gygax.  Does that help?  If not, then you just never played Dungeons & Dragons.

Gary Gygax was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons.  Even if you never played you heard of it.  I played and loved it.  If you play War Craft or some other game system now, D&D was the War Craft of its day.  Sure it wasn’t played on a computer, but with paper and dice.  Back then the only thing on the computer was pong.  By the time I took up D&D Atari had swept the nation, but nothing video could replace D&D back then.  I would even contend now that no game system can offer what D&D did.

Sure games like  War Craft allow people to play simulated games with others all around the world, but most of the thinking is still done for you.  You don’t need to know 400 pages worth of rules.  You don’t consult manuals.  Most of all, you don’t have to get together as a group to play.

For all the people that knocked D&D.  It forced you to get together with friends.  It forced you to use your imagination and be creative.  It made you think outside of the box.  The rules were extremely complex, yet your only limit of what you could do was within your own head.

Studies years later, about those that played D&D, showed that they have higher incomes, were more likely to graduate from college, more likely to graduate from graduate school, and had lower levels of suicide rates compared to their peers.  On a whole, D&D players were intelligent people.  They recognized a game that allowed their imaginations to roam free and they took advantage.  No video game is ever going to do that.

I have been turned off by sports, especially the traditional ones. Steroids and HGH are the number one topic in baseball. The public knows exists in football. You have “spy gate” (why are we so stupid as a nation that know every scandal has to end in ‘gate’?). Landis is a disgraced champion with his appeal to CAS starting this month. It is estimated that 25 percent of the riders in the Tour de France were doping last year. If 25 percent of cycling is doping what percentage of pro football and baseball players are doping where the money is much bigger? You have fighting between the UCI and the new organization running the tours and top European races. Two of the top three cycling contenders won’t be at the Tour.

The Illini (notice I know longer call them my Illini), have gotten rid of the Chief and allowed a person that nearly killed a teammate back on the team. Okay, we did go to the Rose Bowl and that was exciting.

In other words, I turned my back on sports, well at least watching them on TV. Then my brother-in-law, Mark, sent me a video. It is a short four-minute video recapping the final nine minutes of the Illinois-Arizona came in 2005. Illinois was trailing and let Arizona build a lead up to 15 points with four minutes left. Then the Illini stormed back. It truly was inspiration to watch the come back. The flood of emotions I felt were just as real as when I watched the game live, despite knowing the outcome. It reminded me that sports can show you that no matter how dire the situation, there is always hope and the impossible can always become possible again.

Sports shows us that all the time. In fact, making the “impossible” possible is part of my life theme. I often tell people, “If I can do it, anyone can do it.” So, going to college, then law school, being admitted to practice law in two states, marathons, being a two-time Ironman finisher, losing 100 lbs (I have since put 30 back on)… none of it seems impossible. In fact, I expect every person should be able to do it.

This attitude my also explain my lack of drive in my fitness. After all, doing Ironman was the challenge. Not to do it faster or more times. Just doing it was the challenge. People thought it was impossible. Now, almost every person I hang around with has done a marathon and most have done Ironmans. So, no wonder things like that don’t seem to be a challenge.

That means finding new challenges… well other than the top one of being a dad. So, for this summer, I have put some goals on the calendar. It isn’t to do anything faster. It is just to do things I haven’t done. I am going to do some mountain biking. Some 12-hour races just to see if they are fun. I think in 2009 I will climb Mount Rainier. Some day, maybe some rock climbing will be in the mix also.

No matter what, we have to remember that sport should inspire us. The emotions you get from watching something spectacular on television need to be remembered and brought to activities in your own life.  You need continue to try new things and have fun doing it.  After all, nothing is impossible.