What inspires you to do what you do when it comes to playing a sport?

It’s a wide open question and I suppose there really isn’t a wrong answer because anything which can get you active is not a bad thing in my opinion.

For some people it’s being a part of a team or maybe just hanging around with some friends you might not see otherwise.

But we can easily find an excuse for not taking part and so a little tap on the shoulder from reality is sometimes needed.

Recently I had the pleasure of playing some golf down in Tucson with a man whom I had never met until the day we played as part of a foursome.

It wasn’t until we were three holes in when I found out a little bit of information about him that made me look at what I do for activity these days and take stock in what makes me tick in that regard.

I grew up playing many sports through my school years and a good chunk of the years following.

The effect of those sports played a part in the several knee operations I’ve gone through and while it slowed me down it didn’t stop me from playing a few sports to this day. However, those issues almost kept me from staying active though as I had occasion to complain about my situation so it was easy to stop playing some of those sports and make excuses for playing others poorly.

Well, the man I was playing golf with put it all in perspective when he told me six years ago a stroke had left him unable to walk or talk. In addition, he had been battling cancer at the same time making each day very tough.

But he beat the cancer and is now off of any medication in order to control his heart issues, explaining away some of the success in the fact he wasn’t going to lie down for anything if he could help it at all.

He was going to play golf no matter what, not caring about the result and just thankful he could play at all. He did play quite well for the most part that day but he never got down when he hit a poor shot.

The fact he was still playing was a credit to his strong will and it put my own physical limitations into perspective when it came to playing golf or getting back out on the ice to referee hockey.

Thanks John, I appreciate the dose of reality.

sports@reddeerexpress.com