Out of Touch?

My wife and I finally purchased a new wireless router for our home, after almost a year of not having one. Oh, the humanity! We just kept putting it off for one reason or another. But when we signed up for Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and discovered we could watch streaming movies through our Nintendo Wii, which requires a wireless connection, we could put off buying a router no more!

So, with said router installed and working perfectly (after having my friend/neighbor/golf buddy/IT guru Keith help us with it), I have been using our wireless connection to its full potential. One big thing I did was to go into the Nintendo Wii Shop Channel and download Blades of Steel (BOS, from now on), which was my favorite NES game growing up. I remember playing that game with friends hours on end during weekend sleepovers (not that we slept, since we were to busy playing BOS). If you don't remember, BOS was a hockey game, and in 1988, it was the top of the line hockey game. And after hours upon hours of playing it, I became virtually unbeatable. I had one the Tournament Mode in Junior, College, and Pro levels more times than I could count.

Fast forward to Monday, when I attempted to pick up where I left off and resume my childhood mastery of BOS. I played as Minnesota and chose Toronto as my opponents (due to their turquoise uniforms). I chose the Junior skill level, since it had been over 15 years since I last played the game, so I wanted to give myself an "easy" re-introduction. And things started off great, as I scored 2 goals in less than three minutes. However, that pride quickly gave way to anger and shock, as Toronto started scoring like a man walking into a women's prison with a fistful of pardons. The problem was I couldn't goaltend! My goalie may as well have been sitting on the bench, because I certainly couldn't move him fast enough. Offensively, I was turning the puck over way too much, and having trouble taking the puck away from Toronto. If Toronto stole the puck from me in my zone, they inevitably scored due to the aforementioned poor goaltending on my part. I wound up losing this first game 14-8.

After cooling off from my initial shock, I chose to try again. But this time, instead of using the Wii remote, which I found cumbersome in controlling my men, I used the control pad that plugs into the remote. This gave me much better control. However, I lost my second game as well, a 13-12 scorefest between my Chicago team and the Edmonton team.

I have not played that game since Monday, mostly because I have been at work. I have lost my childhood mastery of Blades of Steel. It makes me wonder: what else have I lost from my childhood? I am sure with enough practice, I will once again become the BOS player I used to be. Well, not exactly. A lot has happened to me since my BOS heyday. I have graduated college and graduate school, had several jobs, gotten married, bought a house, among other things. In other words, I have grown up considerably since the late 80's, as I am sure everyone has.

I think we all get so caught up in our adult lives to the extent where we provide ourselves with little time to think about how laid back and carefree our childhood was. I think about all the great times I had in high school: Drama club, girls, Fugazi, being "straight edge", and not having any responsibilities except getting good grades and a few household chores. I think about middle school. On second thought, let's not think about that; otherwise I will need therapy, or at least some little blue pills. But, to that point, our childhood experiences, positive and negative, shape the unique individuals we are today. My friend Sandra told me that four people from our High School graduating class have passed away since we graduated: one from suicide, one from a drug overdose, one in a car accident, and one from a terminal illness. I don't know why, but that hit me like a ton of bricks, for some reason. I don't know why, but it did. I mean, I know the PVHS class of 1995 all thought we were invincible. But as an adult, I know that is not the case, and that we have to make the most of every day that God allows us to have. But at the moment Sandra told me about my fallen former classmates, I was flooded with memories from our four years at Park View, the vast majority of which were very positive. So I was like "How could bad things happend to OUR class?" How egocentric is that?

To keep from rambling, let me fast forward back to today. I am going to recommit myself to making sure I don't forget my roots. I accept the fact that my experiences growing up have made me the man I am today. I think I turned out pretty well, although I know I still have some things to work on, as we all do. Nobody should ever "settle" for being the person they are at this moment. We all need to continue to strive for self-improvement. So I am going to make sure I stay in touch with the person I was in the late 80's and 90's, because he helped shaped the person I am today. And I am going to start by trying to regain my prowess at Blades of Steel!