Life without Games?
There was a time in my life when I didn’t play any MMO’s at all. It wasn’t until I was on my own that I started playing them actually. It’s my way of blowing off steam, meeting new people, it was cheap, and I had time to burn. It seems as though the time I get to spend in my favorite games grows ever smaller, being taken up by more urgent needs and wants, health being a big one. I imagine at some point I’ll have to either force time for games, or give them up completely. I don’t relish the thought of giving them up all together. So what’s a guy to do?
It looks as though I’m going to have to become a weekend warrior as far as games are concerned. I hate it, but time doesn’t permit much else. I have a girlfriend, dog, and various other obligations going on, I just don’t have the time. On top of that, I’m seriously considering taking up an old hobby, and maybe finding another one. You see, watching Riverdance live last week really got me missing clogging. Also, it got me thinking about what happens when I have no more excuses about going back. Will I actually go, or will I find new and improved excuses? Only one way to find out.
That leads me to my next interest. When I was 10 or 11, I went to New England (Massachusetts to be exact) and got to see some very talented girls doing Irish ceili (soft shoe) dancing. It sparked something in me that would be a passion every since. Back then, I was pudgey yes, but a bit later I proved to be quite a good dancer, having danced in hundreds of shows, infront of hundereds of thousands of people, in about 30 or so US states.
What I’m talking about is the time I spent in a local boy scout explorer post devoted to the preservation of the Native American traditions and crafts, which included dance. It was fun! I learned all about beading, leatherwork, folk-lore, and lots and lots of dances. I toured for 3 summers all over the US, seeing the country and experiencing different areas. I even competed a few times and won some. It was great! But then, I discovered girls and dropped out of scouts.
A year or maybe a bit more later, my interest in both dance and girls would bring me into the folds of clogging. It was something different, and hey, who doesn’t like looking at all the pretty girls in their spiffy, and most of the time short, costumes. Indeed, I’d found a something that would consume about 12 hours or more a week, three nights a week, for the next four or so years. During that time, I won a few things, not really anything substancial. It really wasn’t about winning for me. Eventually, it was about getting good, and having fun. I was forced into work and school and no longer had time for dancing of any kind. Over the last decade, I’ve been an on and off again clogger. I’d get these spurts of time where I could go, but eventually something would happen (at one point, I was so broke, gas money to go to work was a worry) and I’d be unable to go again.
Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about going back. Yeah, I’m fat now, but who says I can’t lose the weight again? Who says I can’t get good again? I’m wondering if it’s possible for a 30-something has-been to become better than he was on his best day? From here on out, I guess time will only tell. It would seem that I’ve already made up my mind. Perhaps I have, and perhaps I’ll now have the means to sustain another few years in clogging. But what about the passion? How can I reignite it? I’m afraid it’s gone and won’t be coming back…. 
This brings me back to something I’ve had on my mind. I understand there is an Irish Dance school here in Amarillo, although scouring the net and googling for it has turned up nothing sort of maybe a lead or two I mean to follow up on. I’ll probably wait a year or so before persuing it, but I wonder if I could learn Irish dancing at this age, and be good? Surely I have a few good years left in me? Can I find a passion for it? Again, only time will tell.
I should go…. Maybe more later….
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