Retreat Activities

We had an all-day retreat yesterday on the new campus of a local university. While we didn't have enough time to take in the nature preserve on the grounds, or ping pong (they had two tables but both were occupied), we did manage to hack a little sack. Surprisingly, our skills hadn't vanished from months of inactivity. It must be like riding a bike, except for the flexibility thing.

Hacky sack is the Rodney Dangerfield of fitness. Why isn't it more mainstream? Is it that it conjures up visions of Keira Knightley thin, rastafarian dreadlocks sporting circle of tribal youth who haven't bathed in a week? Or is it that nobody wants to look as uncoordinated as the first celebrity voted off "Dancing with the Stars"?

I'm learning that different things appeal to people at different times in their life. I was perfectly fine with no hacky sack for all but the last two years of my life. It didn't scream out to try it. There was no neon halo or Argonaut attraction to the sea nymph's bewitching song. Maybe it's just middle age that's causing a lot of things to become as appealing as an all you can eat four dollar Chinese buffet. I have to learn hacky sack, try cyclocross, cycling time trials all right now, this minute. But even the Chinese buffet has some foods on it that only natives of the remote Xinjiang province try and so jumping out of planes and climbing Mount Everest are left for others with more discerning tastebuds. But who knows those two things may appeal to me later in life as it did with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in the "Bucket List".

All I know is that when I hack the sack it puts a big smile on my face. And with all the uncertainty in the world today, where smiles are hard to come by, we could all use a little more hack.

* note - Fish was hacking as well but someone had to take the photo.