Those Were the Days

I was just now wondering why I spent an hour this afternoon watching a documentary on some Russian ballet guy I've never heard of (ha! as if I've heard of OTHER ballet guys that i DO know!!!!...it's BALLET, for chrissake!!!) instead of watching football. Even when the Cowboys were on, I could barely bother to pay attention. I kept flipping away, looking for something new/different/anything.

Maybe it's because watching the Cowboys, or football in general, have become memories frozen in time for me, and I'm simply not interested or even capable of forming any new ones. Maybe watching the Cowboys will always mean a certain thing for me: Sunday dinner, then the game starts, then at halftime run around the vacant lot throwing the football with Brothatime!!, listening to John Madden and Pat Summerall broadcast the game. A cold, dark Sunday with beef stew simmering on the stove, homemade bread coughing up steam when you pull it apart. Anything else, any other situation, and I don't seem too interested in the Cowboys. Same as college football - it's not the same without the thrill of bringing the ol' black & white tv (we called it a "set" back then!) into our room for a few hours on a Saturday to watch Notre Dame/Michigan or whoever (or the Celtics during the NBA season, another perfect example of what I'm talking about.)

Maybe in tuning into the ballet thing I was deciding I wanted some NEW memories. And maybe it worked, and whenever I think of the Russian ballet from now on I'll think of that today's exact moment, these exact walls, floor, ceiling, television set even, all right in front of me, today.

I worry about sounding like a "those were the good 'ol days!" kinda guy, but it is what it is. And what's important isn't whether or not I put "the good ol' days" into a nice box to put in the attic, but that I pick up some more of them as time goes on. The ballet today, maybe techno-rave glitter tomorrow, maybe I'll discover sushi next week, who knows.  Mumblety-peg, even.

Though seriously: probably not the sushi thing.