Vicarious Vitality: Watching Them Run

Yes, we have two grand daughters, and it is only because the older one had a NIGHT game that she has not been featured in this back to back g-dau series.

The take-home from watching the energy expended on the field was that “there was a time” and it does not seem so long ago, when energy and strength were boundless and pain a stranger. To everything there is a season I suppose–a time to run and a time to refrain from running.

I remember when our son first “played soccer” (or at least there was  a ball by that name on the field.) The sport amounted to watching a tight little wad of appendages attached to every 6 yr old on both teams, all within five feet of whereever the ball was–a shin-kicking dust cloud of a sport.

six year old pursues the soccer ball downfield at full speed
Eye on the ball, full speed ahead!

Occasionally the ball entered the goal by accident and parents for the offense all claimed their child was responsible. Who could tell through the dust storm?

So I was pleasantly surprised to see in the game we watched on the tiny tot sized rectangle some actual attempts to pass the ball and hold some semblance of assigned position on the field. Not entirely, mind you; and there were a few on both sides who could be tagged as saying in future years that they were “not that athletic” growing up.

The shot up top was not my favorite, but with the format of “featured images” in this WordPress template, you’re pretty well stuck with landscape-oriented pictures to frame a composition to accompany the post.

So I’ve just tucked the other one in as a thumbnail of a better framed action shot and you can click or hover over it and see the larger image.

Honestly, it has been too long since I’ve had the Nikon D200 out of the bag, and it felt so good to have a responsive shutter and a manually controlled exposure/shutter speed option and manually-zoomable lens. You DO give up a good bit with the iPhone.

But the best camera to use is the one you have with you. My “phone” is ever with me, so has become the “best camera.” But I have apologized to my Nikon about my neglect and will make it up to her in the next few months. Promise.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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