Driving adjustments

The NFL channel runs a series called A Football Life.  An outstanding coach or player's career is highlighted showing some of the off-the-field parts of a the great one's life that were a driving force behind the great career.  Vince Lombardi was one of the first lives selected for the show.

Another of the episodes depicted Bill Bellicek, the New England Patriots coach, who is next to Lombardi in the amount of success he has had.  The episode was in two parts, so it was the lengthiest episode of the series.  But, out of the two hours presented, it came down to the last 5-minute segment.  The television camera was in the car with Bill as he drove in the pre-dawn hours to his office at Gillette Stadium.  He was commenting on the nature of the job.  He mentioned the satisfaction he derived from his satisfying career, but ended with musing, "You give up a lot of things to be coach - family, kids, missing ball games and part of their lives.  Life passes you by."

I have mixed feelings about that ending.  I am glad that Bill told the truth and that the program was true to Bill in not editing the comment out.  But, I am sad that Bill has gained the phenomenal success that every coach starts out to gain but doesn't, and finds that the pot at the end of the rainbow contains tarnished gold.

I want very much to achieve success, but I have not been willing to let life pass me by.  I have wanted to participate with my children and extended family in visiting places of interest, relaxation, and beauty.  I have wanted to find a person I could trust, respect, and enjoy.  I have wanted to travel in my job.  I have wanted to experience an exotic place or two.  I have wanted to rise as high as possible on the professional food chain without compromising any of the above. 

In the last 5-minute episode of my life, I don't want to say, "It's been a great ride, but the important things in life passed me by."  Nearly everything I have wished for has happened.  For the main desire of my life that has not materialized to this point, I have faith.  Life happens pretty fast, so it is easy to understand how a person can let life become a blur in the day-to-day routines.  But we all have rear view mirrors in order to make adjustments on the road for seeing when life is about to pass us.

Of course, some of life inevitably does and will pass me by.  Still, though, I have faith that the important part will not.