The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

One thing I've noticed as I age is that holidays tend to lose that spark they once had. It's still highly enjoyable to get together with family over Thanksgiving and Christmas, tell stories, share a few laughs, eat way too much food, drink a bit too heavily, and reflect on life (hopefully not while eating or drinking too much). Over the years, though, perhaps partially due to repetition, a loss of naivete, and reality slowly overtaking one's dreams, many such annual celebrations lose the magic they once possessed. This is especially the case around Christmas. I can remember my younger brother and I staying up all night on Christmas Eve, not being able to sleep due to the excitement we felt about the following morning. Without bothering to bathe or change out of our pajamas, we'd jump out of bed as soon as an adult started walking around the house, would dart for the Christmas tree, and start unwrapping presents at light-speed. After a few years, that level of excitement...

It's pretty amazing how drastically our perspectives change throughout the course of life. As a child, it's incredibly difficult to understand the responsibilities of adults, and even though we may long for some of the freedoms yet afforded us at the time, we don't yet realize the weight of responsibilities that come along with those very freedoms. We'll often times find ourselves enjoying life as a child, but wanting to grow up, yet not wanting to grow up too much. These areas become further blurred as we develop into teenagers and young adults in college. True adulthood approaches closer, yet still appears to be far enough in the distance where we needn't trouble ourselves thinking too much about it, while we enjoy our new-found freedoms in life, and don't yet miss those childhood years. Then when adulthood hits us, it often times befuddles many, overwhelms some, and leaves us longing for the years void of much responsibility or even freedom. Gone are the worr...

So, I turned 34 on Saturday. In the days following, I've pondered about several things as is often the case when we approach this time of year: - Where in the world did these past four years go? - Am I really only six years away from turning 40? - Why does my 21st birthday seem so long ago? Was it really 13 years ago? - I can't possibly be thinking about using Just For Men Original Formula to remove some white from my hair, can I? - Why is it people remove ten years from a person's age and will say "50 is the new 40" or "110 is the new 100"? Does that mean 34 is the new 24? Really? There are days and weeks that just don't seem to end, yet there are also years that seem to pass us by at the speed of light, where we have to think back and wonder where the time went. This has happened to me in recent years. I can remember moving from Omaha, Nebraska to central Ohio approximately 7 years ago. I was 27, through with college, drifting apart fro...

There's rumor that Major League Baseball is threatening Alex Rodriguez with a lifetime ban from the league unless he agrees not to fight a suspension which would be handed to him and several other players in the latest drug scandal. If he doesn't fight the suspension, he would likely be suspended through the 2014 season. "Lifetime ban" is quite the headline, but it's not nearly as big of a deal as most people are making it. Alex Rodriguez is 38 years old. He hasn't played at all this year. He played a little over half the season in 2011. A-Rod has missed 24 or more games in every season since 2007. He's missed 297 games in the past 6 seasons combined - an average of 49.5 per. This isn't a guy who appears like he'll be playing for much longer. If he's suspended through 2014, he'll be 39 going on 40 heading into the 2015 season. The reason he might fight that very suspension is he only planned on playing one more season, so a one-year suspe...