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We shall begin with “dot dot dot” and continue with:
Hello World!!!
Did you miss me? Oh, all four dear readers, you had to know that when I mentioned retirement earlier in the year that JMAW couldn’t stay retired forever. Visual art was fun. Not writing was a bit of alright but I find that I have more to express than ever.
In the vein of great ones around the world, retirement is but a blink. Now, I’m nowhere near great yet, in terms of what I have left the world to ponder but I’m great internally, and quite frankly, that’s pretty phenomenal.
But enough about me, let’s look at a few short-lived retirements and how they turned out:
- Randy Couture- 13 month lay-off to come out of retirement and move back up and recapture the UFC Heavyweight Championship at 73, okay, more like 45, either way: EPIC and truly inspirational
- Michael Jordan (the first time)- drops 55 points against the Knicks after a rocky return games, loses in the playoffs, comes back and rattles the second Bulls trilogy…
- Michael Jordan (the second time)- no championship but still put in some performances that were amazing
- Brett Favre - love him or hate him, he’s better than most of the other starting QB’s in the NFL and with the Vikings could be pretty crazy to watch for one more go
- Clarence Waipa- the guest speaker at my high school graduation, my 11th grade Art and Hawaiian History teacher, who retired that year and came back after speaking at our graduation to teach generations more at St. Joseph High School in Hilo town
While I love MMA and at one time loved basketball, no retirement stands out more to me than the last one. Mr. Waipa was an interesting character. I will be honest and say I don’t remember much from either class but something stood out about Mr. Waipa coming back to work at St. Joseph.
He’d been a teacher for decades already. He was in a position where he could retire. But he just loved what he did and wanted to keep on doing that.
Like the athletes, mentioned above, nothing left to prove, already great, but something else left in the tank. I don’t know where my path will go and how it will unfold but I hope that I might someday leave the world something because at 29 years young, I am nowhere near running on empty.
I haven’t done anything “great” on a macro level but I know that on the micro level, my own being as micro as can be, that I am great compared to a few years ago, good to a few months ago, and the more I change, the more the world changes. The more I heal, the more the world heals. Now add all of us into that equation, we change, we heal, wow, the world really has changed, has healed…
So it’s Hello World, JMAW 3.0 because I’m a new version. By the end of my days I hope to be at 4.0(how’s that JOY? wink wink) as 4 is what famed psychiatrist Carl Jung felt to be a balanced and whole number and various traditions.
To quote the Mayor of Hanalei: “Keep Livin’ the Dream”
Shoots.
JMAW