Short Time

Young Dirty wrestled for 3 years. I learned that it’s probably the toughest sport there is. It requires strength, discipline, and vulnerability like no other. It’s one person against another. You can’t blame any shortcoming of the offense, or the pitcher, or anyone. I won’t pretend that I understood it. Literally one of the only things I recognized was when coaches or other parents would yell out “short time!”

That’s the call to the person in the fight that to hang in there because it’s almost time to stop. It can be to the person who’s in the dominant position, “You’re almost there, want to make something big happen? Now’s the time.” And it’s useful to the person who is, at that moment, out gunned by their opponent. You know, the person who could be on the verge of too soon of a surrender. To them short time means “Don’t give up. You’ve got a break coming very soon.” It’s a simple expression that infuses fight and energy into either opponent.

If you watch MMA, you probably can’t hear mommies yelling to their warriors “short time,” but maybe you’ve heard the slapping of sticks together when a round is nearing the end. In the middle of being pulverized, a fighter knows what that sound means. Time is running out so it’s either a) now or never to finish him or b) don’t pass out yet.

The structure of defined starts/stops and rules of engagement is very compelling. As it turns out, life is not so clear cut.

In the big picture, it’s hard to know when there’s short time. There’s no clock to say when the thing (whatever it is) is nearing the end. For folks who are just trying not to get pinned, I wish there was a clock that tipped them off to the idea that things will get better soon.  

I’m sure these kind of thoughts creep up more with age. Lately I’ve considered that there’s a finite number of dogs left for me to own or cars left for me to drive. And, that can be heavy to contemplate. But truly, the thought of knowing time ends is not despairing.

Any time is a gift to be cherished. We don’t know when some fucker’s going start slapping sticks together to tell us our time is almost done.

I really fall short of this goal, but it’s my wish to not take time for granted. This doesn’t mean I’ll burden myself with debt to buy diamond encrusted crossfit shoes or overdose on deep fried oreos. It’s less about wanting to live like there’s no tomorrow, and more about wanting to live like I got the most out of every today.

We’ve all lived in a weird co-existence with a pandemic for a long time. Hopefully there’s some positive take away’s. Maybe we can be more purposeful in the time that we do have, be authentic and make sure our people walk through their days knowing they’re cared about. Maybe we will buy the tickets, take the trip, or eat the Oreos. Whatever is your version of making the best use of our short time, do it.

Thanks for reading!