You learn at an early age that life is all about the decisions that you make. Life is a series of decisions. Decisions often come with unintended consequences.
The Summer of ’77
The suburbs of Chicago was a cool place to grow up in 1977. I was enjoying the summer before I started High School. We lived on 12 acres of church property. A new church facility was newly finished and it came complete with a state of the art worship center, tons of Sunday School space, and a full gym! We love sports. We spent hours in that gym playing basketball, various forms of football and what we called stick ball. Stick ball was played with a broom handle and a tennis ball and it was basically baseball without running the bases.
Stick Ball
Mom and dad were heading out for the evening on a Thursday night. For some reason on that particular Thursday night my parents asked us not to go down to the gym. We went anyway, notwithstanding any unintended consequences.
Unintended Consequence
My brother, four friends and I were playing stick ball when I misplayed a high chopper and it hit me in my left eye. I tried to front it off, but it became clear very quickly that I had a severe eye injury. My eye filled up with blood and consequently I could not see out of the eye at all. I don’t know if I was more afraid of what I had done to my eye or what my parents were going to say. I had a torn retina. Surgery followed. The surgery left a significant scar where they “lasered” my retina back together making me “legally blind” in my left eye.
My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
Decisions often come with unintended consequences. Moreover I made a poor decision and unfortunately experienced the unintended consequence. My life flashed before my eyes. The only thing I could think was, “Is my High School football career over before it even started?” I remember wondering about my dad’s disappointment if I were unable to play football. My eye doctor assured me that it was safe for me to play football, but my “good eye” must be protected at all cost. It was/is the only one that I have left. You will never see me without glasses or sunglasses. My parents never said I told you so or you should have listened to your mother and me. They allowed the consequence to speak for itself. I like to think that I learned a bit about consequences during that episode, but I made a lot of dumb mistakes after that and faced those consequences too.
