Official Old Man

 

After 31 years of sitting around every other Wednesday night checking in on our mutual lives and exploring given topics, the Men’s Group I’m in finally decided to shake things up. Inspired both by pandemic indoor fear and people falling asleep in evening meetings, our new format is Friday mornings somewhere outdoors in the world. 

 

I love it! Not only does it bring sky, trees, birds and grass into the mix, exploration of new neighborhoods, fresher early-morning energy, but we can actually walk while we talk and occasionally play a game to be with each other in a non-verbal, playful way. 

 

Like today. We met at the little Coffee Kiosk in the park by Haight and Stanyan and after a nice sharing of things we are grateful for, played a game of bocci ball in the little court they have there. Fun! And my team won!

 

I have an association of the game with old Italian men or generally with older retired people who shift their life focus from winning court cases, negotiating business deals, teaching higher mathematics, delivering the mail and other careers choices to seeing how close they can roll the larger ball to the smaller yellow one. The intensity and seriousness of their purpose, their dedication to mastering the skills, the excitement of looking forward to tomorrow’s game— looking at it from the outside, I’ve always chuckled with just a hint of superior judgment. 

 

And now I’m playing it. The last vote has now been cast—I’m officially old!!!

 

Can’t wait until the next time we play!