What is time worth? What time will we have left to chase the sun? Laugh at you is all time will do. As I read the commentary on the passing of Don Youngblood, I was struck in the gut by my own mortality. Now, it's funny how we never think of our own mortality until someone in our realm passes. What do you mean? That shit could happen to me? Oh yeah… That very thing could happen to any of us at any time. The weird thing is that this thought didn't make me shrink from my rough ideals and hard-hitting mindset. It did just the opposite… The message in my head was clear. We do not have unlimited days at our disposal, and so we must hold them in even higher regard. The real tragedy is not the passing of someone we love and appreciate, but wasting those precious days that none of us are ever promised to begin with. Don't shrink from the voice within you that cries out to compete and to fight. If you don't win that is okay. Shit, it isn't even relevant. I hope what I'm saying is understood, and not sloughed off like some old saying that nobody really believes. A guy like Don Youngblood who basically competed for the first time when he was about forty represented the true spirit of a competitive being. He was never going to be the next big buzz in the bodybuilding world, and I bet that was just fine with him. He didn't follow a guru or travel with an entourage, and he didn't speak about himself in the third person. The man set a goal. He outlined a time frame for the results he desired, and he got busy. Thank you Don Youngblood and all those like you for the example you have shown me. I hope I can live in a way that does honor to your memory.
