Do not go gentle into that good night

Ok, so Dylan Thomas was not exactly writing about what I am about to pontificate on but it is germane to this week's post.

Back in early 1980’s Poppa Jeff turned 40 and had a birthday party with a friend of his, Alan Wilson, who happened to have his birthday on the same day. Alan was disappointed that his name wasn’t Brian, as he really just wanted to lie in bed, however he came to the party anyway. I remember being downstairs watching a movie about some Austrian painter with a stupid mustache topping himself (he seemed like quite a douchebag) whilst the ‘adults’ partied upstairs. The standard attire seemed to be suits or sports coats, ties, dress shirt etc and the men dressed the same :) A belly dancer turned up at one point, there was the obligatory gift of a walking cane and the boisterous singing of 'Life begins at 40' by Dave & the Dynamos echoed through the house. Evening finished with the smoking of cigars and a sherry or port depending on your fortified wine orientation.

Skip, dance or prance forward about 30 years and yours truly turned 40 in 2010. There were no suits and ties worn, no one had a sherry, sure Mike T may have smoked a cigar or 2 as is his want and nothing untoward happened at all. There were no belly dancers, no one singing an obscure song from the 80’s that no one in the US had ever heard of and the birthday boy definitely did not end the night heading to the hospital in an ambulance after taking a minor knock to his head, no matter what photographic proof there might have been.

Ok James (you say) amusing anecdote, but where the fuck are you taking us this week?

Old age should burn and rave at close of day.

I was concerned growing up that when I reached 40 I would have to wear a suit and tie at my 40th birthday party and drink Tawny Port – luckily society has changed some so I got to wear Levis and drink Jack (lots of it apparently but that is neither here nor there). I have definitely extended my girth in the past few decades but I believe that I have kept the ability to not be soured by age and to enjoy every day as it comes. I am actually wearing a pair of shorts today that I was wearing back in 2001 (and I have photographic proof – otherwise I wouldn’t actually know that). Either I was trendy then and not trendy now or have never been trendy at all. More likely it is the fact that I refuse to age even though my body refutes that every single day. Age is so much more mental than it is physical. As we age we take longer to recover. As we age we take longer to get into shape. As we age we take longer to make decisions as we have more years of insight to base our decisions on (at least that is my excuse for driving around looking for a parking space). As we age we tend to accept that we are not as young as we used to be and therefore cannot do the things we used to do.

Well I say fuck that.

We can do anything we want to put our minds to. It may take longer (and in some situations that is obviously better) and it may be a more arduous journey to get the results wanted but if we set realistic goals based on some of the limitations that age and biology place on us there is nothing we cannot do. I am never going to be a slim svelte part time athlete ever again but that doesn’t mean I cannot be a Clydesdale and compete at a different level. If the goal is to complete something vs to compete something why the fuck can I not do that.

Rage, rage against the dying of the night.

In a previous job I got back into riding a bike again, the culture of the company embraced athletic endeavors (or in my case athletic folly). My new workplace has a gym about 100 yards from my desk and access to some awesome riding areas. A friend, Wayne, in LA, is riding almost every day to work and we are communicating on a regular basis about our rides to help motivate each other to not be such fat lazy pricks. Unfortunately for Wayne I have decided to take this lunchtime mind cleanser to another level and am really hoping some of y’all will join us.

So here it is – a fun challenge for 2016 and now it is out there no chance of being a piker.

On September 5th 2016 there is a Triathlon event in Austin TX. They have the standard 1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run event and also the sprint distance (750m/20k/5k). I am going to do (for the first time in 26 years since I was told that I had to quit training) an Olympic distance race to complete, not necessarily compete. Now understand that I am a fat bastard who smokes and drinks and probably shouldn’t run much and definitely needs to keep wearing board shorts over my lyrca cycling gear but I am not going gentle anywhere. This will be a social event and the plan is to raise money for a charity (The Variety Club most likely) and have a lot of fun. I will be looking for sponsors for kit and sponsors for the post-race hootenanny and for people to participate in any way they want. I will also be annoying the living fuck out of a few of y’all to get you to commit to this event. You don’t want to miss out on the reunion race in 2017 by not coming to the inaugural Poets Day ‘why the fuck are we doing this’ event - I will come up with a suitable name at some point soon as Wtfawdt is hard to say.

Please join me as I refuse to go gentle into that good night and rage, rage against the dying of the light. Raise some money for charity and raise a glass with some friends.

So work hard, play hard and earn your inspiration – oh and you might want to start training as God knows you don’t want this fat bastard to beat you :)

Happy Poets Day

PS – Anyone got a road bike that I can borrow? :)