Football fever

Here I sit in my hotel room in Cologne, just returned after a brisk 25 minute walk from the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten restaurant, when a message causes my Blackberry to buzz.

My friend Brian sent me a message informing me there's a football game on TV -- Bayer Leverkusen is playing against Aris Saloniki - in Saloniki, Greece.  This is not American football, rather it is "real" (according to the locals) football, aka soccer.

I am sitting a few kilometers from the Bayer Leverkusen stadium, cheering the lads playing for the team from Saloniki - a city where I lived for a few years when I was younger - something tells me I'm in the minority compared to the rest of the fans in this town.
Memories of going to similar games decades ago wash over me, as I watch the game.
The fans are a churning sea of yellow and black, chanting at the top of their lungs, worked-up to a fever pitch as neither team has managed to score and the game will soon be ending.
Color-wise, it is very reminiscent of Pittsburgh Steelers (American) football games, where black and gold colors dominate the stands and the fans are equally boisterous and loud.

The game finally ends 0 - 0 and the fans are delirious, as the visiting powerhouse club leaves without managing to score any points and has only a scoreless tie to show for its efforts.
I in turn, feel the excitement of cheering for a team, which despite having their trials and tribulations from the last few years escape my conscious, have managed to light some sport-related excitement in me on this chilly night in Germany.

Time Flies!

Here I am checking my often-overlooked blog and am shocked to discover I have not posted anything since August ...  Where has the time gone?
Actually, I have a pretty good idea what happened in September -- my children are still "young" enough that the beginning of the school year can easily be identified as a culprit.
Then there are also work-related things, such as business trips for example, which manage to invade in my personal time.

The main point I want to make however refers to the visualization I frequently see in my mind's eye, of time represented as sand in an hourglass.  Sand, which once it has flowed through the narrow opening, is gone and cannot be taken back.  The same holds true for time - for once it goes by, it is gone and cannot be recovered.  We each have a finite amount of time entrusted to us and we should strive to make the most of it.

What is even more important however is that the world around us will also have changed through time's passing.  The dynamic environment we live in does not remain static - it changes based on the actions (or inactions) of everyone else.  This point was depicted brilliantly in the "Back to the Future" movies for example, where the time machine was used to go back in time and attempt to alter events, which would then lead to an alternate future.

I think of my children, one in high school, the other in college, and think about how quickly they seem to have grown up.  Time sure seems as if it has flown by since they were much younger!
Time has indeed passed, and since I do not have access to a time machine, I can only plan for how I will use my time today and in the future.  I hope to use it wisely.