Better times...

When I was a child the Packers were our heroes. It was the sixties, we were kids crazy about football, and the Packers were on top of the world. I had a Bart Starr jersey I wore until my body didn't fit anymore. It was a different world.

We're all older now and it seems like there's so much more at stake. We scream, yell, get angry. There's too much money on the line. We forget it's a game and life is far more than a game. Enjoy the moment but don't let the moment overwhelm the rest of you.

I'm glad its not the best of seasons for the Packers. No, I don't like the losing, the fact that people might get hurt, or that kind of sinking feeling when other people gloat over your team's hard times. But I hope people learn the lessons of which rough seasons are a reminder. Don't let your happiness ride on the shoulders of others. Enjoy the game, the moments, but don't let a group of men with jerseys be your only great cause, life is more than what happens on Sunday afternoon.

All this comes to mind because yesterday I bought a Bart Starr jersey, a reminder of better times, of different people who played the game and different children who listened on the radio. It's a bigger size, of course, and I've learned more then I knew then, for better or worse. Yet there's still a kid inside and I want that to stay the same, forever.