Adversity and Football Movies

Craig and I had the RARE opportunity to have the morning and afternoon (lunch with my family in between) to ourselves... we snuggled and watched a movie! With not a kid around to make us stop! We had rented "The Express" - which turned out to be a great football movie about the first African American football layer to win the Heisman. Great Flick. See it if you can.

I have a running joke - all good movies include three elements.

1. A "Coach" or authority figure is overthrown - and the team wins (or individual)


2. Someone overcomes adversity of some kind


3. The guy gets the girl or the girl gets the guy
   

I love this because of #2. Adversity is described by the American dictionary as: NOUN: 1. A state of hardship or affliction; misfortune. We all face some type of adversity - daily, weekly - minute to minute. Watching normal humans look this kind of challenge in the eye and succeed --- now THAT is inspiring.

I searched for quotes (I am a quote junkie) on adversity and found one that spoke to me today:

"Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch." - James Baldwin

I was on the way to a Rugby match one weekend -- years ago and long before I really thought there was something wrong with me that a lot of time in the gym couldn't fix --- and we were all talking about weight issues -- I was by far the heaviest girl in the car (and I believe on our team) -- and kept saying something to the effect of "God it would be great to lose this weight and be done with it." One of the girls (nicknamed Slim if that helps you get a mental picture of her 5 foot nothing 100 and nothing frame against my 5 foot 7 and I am not saying how much physique) looked at me and said ---- "Erin, what would be bad about you losing the weight?" That sure shut me up. NOTHING. In fact -- I believe EVERYTHING in my life would be made better by a healthier, thinner me. And believe me -- I have great self esteem -- I love me. In fact -- I see photos of myself and it is so NOT what I see when I look in the mirror. I kind of wonder what is wrong with our darn camera sometimes...

I wonder what I will be without the crutch of my weight/health issues/Cushing's Disease - I wonder what I will do when I can go to the gym - I can work out for hours like I did in High School. I wonder what it will be like to have an event/wedding/girls night out coming up and not put on a hoody because there is just nothing that fits. I wonder what it will be like to plan things and be 99% sure that I will not be sick or tired or sick and tired of being sick and tired. I wonder what it will be like to be there for my husband like he is for me.

I CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT. I hope that I am not so used to the crutch that I won't rise to the occasion and become the "me that I want to be."