The year was ... 1998 I think.... I was in the best physical shape of my life... ever... If I recall correctly, I was walking, biking and swimming at least two or hours a day, every day, in addition to playing badminton and tennis on the side. It was within a year that I started to lose my eyesight and began laser treatments on both eyes and subsequently had to undergo one major and one minor surgery on one of my eyes... so far. I think one of the last things I may have had done was actually a simple injection in the eye... after which I jokingly said... hmmm.... "stick a needle in my eye"... I can now say... been there, done that. Anyways... the reason this memory came up is because I know for sure that Korn was the music that I would listen to whilst walking or playing tennis. I know that I listened to others as well, but Korn was the mainstay, and also helped me through the next few years of not being able to see as much and do as much as I used to. After all that activity on a regular basis, I had to become accustomed to doing considerably less fairly quickly, as I was sort of limited to walking.. and listening to Korn made that... fun instead of monotonous. Gradually I got back into swimming, a little biking and eventually was able to pull out the racquets again to have a go. Tennis is the one sport that I found most difficult due to lack of depth perception and loss of peripheral vision. Badminton was at times, and still is... troublesome, but at least still doable. Nowadays, the sports have fallen by the wayside, except for Badminton, which, except for those few years that I missed, still feels essential, as it is on a schedule and I think I need that now for some sense of structure in my life. It seems incredible to me now that I used to be so motivated... but, then I remember ... it was something I needed to do to keep sane... to not be thinking about work for twenty-four hours a day.
So, way back then... one of their songs sort of captured who I was, where I was. Today... now... for some reason it still captures who I am and where I am, but from a whole new perspective.
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4 comments:
I find posts like this facinating and really helpful to me as I am responding and reacting to illness and physical changes that have impacted my routines, especially as far as outdoor stuff/sports are concerned. It just helps reinforce the notion that people just adapt when stuff affects them. Sounds simple enough but it can be overwhelming when life gets a bit harder because of illness or operations, etc.
Music (though KORN wasn't really my cup o tea, TOOL was/is!) has also been a great helper and motivator to me as well...Another great post SG!
Thanks T. After going through a time without being able to see out of both eyes with any clarity, my motto was "anything is better than nothing".
As for Korn... One of the times I woke up earlier this morning I realized that I should have put a warning label on that song. Honestly... no one... I mean no in my life here listens to Korn or would appreciate them as I do. Tool is a band that I do know that I listened to, but for some reason I do not remember any of their songs.
I can't recall the name of the song.. perhaps it's the title track from the album AEnima, come to think of it, that's it AEnima. It's about LA and California...how seedy, filthy, with drugs/porn how he wish a big fault line would shave off California and it would fall into the ocean. there is a mantra: Learn to Swim, Learn to Swim, over and over like 30 times. Also he refers to the new ocean front as Arizona Bay! I love that song...so I think I'm going to: Learn to Swim, Learn to Swim, Learn to Swim....
T:
Took a listen to that song...(pretty cool video, not sure if it was an official one or not). I definitely recognize their sound, which means I probably have one of their CDs somewhere.
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