A Garment Of Living

"I am with your PT's 100% and you have a mission to accomplish so continue your everyday preparation just like you "stimulate us" to do".Steven Behr, Sr. wrote this to me when I had to start physical therapy again PT. When I was prepping to run a 26 mile marathon for the first time, there were many times that I wanted to skip the practice, however, because I didn't, it helped me during the actual race when I wanted to stop running. It has also become part of my fabric that helps me address challenges every day. "When I was (Steven Behr's words again) helping mom in our delicatessen in the 50's, she wanted to provide me an alternative to the rock/roll frenzy of the day. She told me to take the day off and go and see the movie, "The Band Wagon". Well the first part gave me my introduction to Fred Astaire and then the wonderful "Dancing in the Dark" in Central Park with Cyd Charisse; wow, what an eye opener and then I wanted to be Fred. I became the "Fred" of our neighborhood and danced with all of the girls while the guys talked about cars and beer. Ah.....! You have a written plan, a great support team and the background to accomplish this goal. We are with you!" Let's keep dancing! Steven Behr. These words were written to me from my email friend in Steilacoom, Washington. He says I always encourage everyone to dance and to accomplish great things; so he is turning the tables on me and he is encouraging me now to continue on with my physical therapy sessions. When I was there last week and today, Cheryl Conrad, the therapist and owner of the place where I go for the therapy twice a week, gave me a new exercise. I walk straight down the room holding onto a counter or a bed and I move my feet side by side, until I reach the end of the table and then I do what she calls my Cha Cha step. I asked why I end it with that and she said this is to strengthen the muscles so I walk better and hopefully, I will be able to dance once again soon. Then I walk back and end it the same way with ,I walk backward and end it the same way. A funny thing happened on the way to doing this, I felt as if once again I was ‘dancing’ not with my husband/partner, but by me alone. The thrill came back to me that I was really dancing once again though alone, but I was dancing. Can you believe this? I was doing a PT exercise to reinforce and shore up my legs and knees and that dance feeling pervaded my body. I felt like a child who had just received a new toy or book and it was not holiday gift giving time or my birthday. When I was a kid, we could not afford in between gifts of toys or books like children get now; those days were saved for the special occasions of the holidays or birthdays. A simple PT exercise filled me with that delight. I have not danced for almost three years, and so I have not experienced that feeling for a long time. You may think when reading this, what is she talking about? It is an accomplishment when one does something to feel like this. I was watching the after game interview of Joe Flacco, our Ravens football quarterback who did extremely great football work this past night in our first football game of the season. The reporter asked him how he felt when he did a certain play in the game. He looked at the reporter and said “which one was that?” He had accumulated in this game so many fine moves or whatever it is called in football; he could not think at the moment which one the reporter was referring to. Then he laughed and said, I know and related how he felt. Of course, it was a kind of insipid question in the first place to ask of a football player who probably played one of his finest games last night of his career and the score was 44-17. Of course, his team mates also did excellent work and I am not a maven on football at all. I just love the excitement of us participating, winning and watching and of course wearing purple outfits the end of the week, Fridays, when they are going to play their game. If you ask me on ballroom dancing, then I am more of a maven on that information. Someone on her Facebook last night must have heard and seen this remark of his and stupidly wrote, “finally a smile from Flacco.” Some players and people do not smile every time something is asked of them or show their emotions. He had just come off of playing a strenuous and hard knocking game of football before 71,000 people at the ballpark and before a national audience of millions and this one writes that he finally smiled. This person participates in some sporting events and she may smile for the pictures she posts on her Facebook, but she is not always a winner. To just participate in these sports as an amateur is to be a winner in my book, but to ask a professional a question and then to say finally he smiled is not being aware of someone else’s emotions. He was surely elated and proud of his work in the game and most likely extremely fatigued after a very hard several hours of being knocked down, running around and everything they have to do with their brains to be effective pro players. If a person does not smile after a useless question, it does not mean he was not smiling in his heart and soul. Of course, I am not an expert on football or the players, but my husband met him last year at a restaurant he was having breakfast in and the waitress told everyone that he was there. As he walked out, everyone greeted him and he was very nice and pleasant and modest. My only complaint to my husband was that he did not get me an autograph. I was not there with him at that time and I, surely, would have gotten one and even at age seventy-eight, I would have been thrilled to see him. Everyone does not react to events the same way. When I have been at dance competitions, I have seen grown women come off of the dance heat (event) and actually cry because they did not think they would win an award for their dancing. When the awards were given out about one hour later, they cried again because they did not win or earn one. I know we cannot always win, I have not always won in my competition days and I never cried. I may have felt sad, but I behaved like a lady and or a good sport should do. I know the feeling of winning, I have fifty-eight trophies and medals from my competition days and I know from other events when I did not earn one for that particular performance, I was sad, but not defeated. A friend of mine is a manager of a jewelry store and a football player came in to buy an engagement ring for his soon to be fiancée. She did not recognize him because he is a very young player and not as well-known as others yet. He mentioned that another Raven had been in there to purchase jewelry and gave him the recommendation. When she found out who he was, she was excited to assist him and he bought a ring. We had been there and left about ten minutes before he arrived. I would have been elated to be there when he was there. She told me his name and I checked him up on the roster and ‘felt’ like I knew him too. During the ballgame, I heard his name mentioned for doing this or that in the game, and I imagined that I knew him and was proud to hear him being mentioned. I am a maven in ballroom dancing from my almost thirty-five years of participating in it and I still get a thrill about anything pertaining to it. I even got exhilarated getting a new PT exercise because it reminded me of when we took dance lessons and we learned a new step/movement. Of course, you seem to never forget what you learned, because I was able to show Cheryl how to really do the Cha Cha step that ended the walking exercise, she gave me recently. So if you ask me to ‘perform’ it for you, I will not really smile right then, but I will be smiling in my heart and soul because it reminds me of my beloved dancing. As Steven said when he wrote me the opening statement of this article, “There were many times that I wanted to skip the practice, however, because I didn't, it helped me during the actual race when I wanted to stop running. It has also become part of my fabric that helps me address challenges every day.” Thus, we all accept challenges every day in everything we do for pleasure, for work, for living and for surviving. They become a fabric of our lives and we weave them into “a garment of living” and we will be happy. elita sohmer clayman