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Friday, September 11, 2009

on basketball, children, and ambidextrousity


The doctor gave me a choice: "If you have discipline, I can give you this flexible brace, otherwise I'm going to set it in a hard cast."

I opted for the brace; of course I was disciplined. Silly me.

4 days after breaking my wrist in a snowboarding accident, I was back to 8 hours of day of typing at the computer, writing emails and books. It felt fine at the time. So good, actually, that I stopped wearing the brace alltogether after about 10 days. 45 days in, however, I wasn't so sure. Serious pain began to shoot up my arm, and my fingers curled in agony. At the 60 day mark, I went back for my checkup and explained the situation. The doc looked at me with a mix of compassion and sorrow: "You said you had discipline. I instructed you to keep off it. Now this may take a really long time to heal."

Doh.

Fast forward 6 years. The wrist is basically healed. And then I decide to get in a hellacious car accident, slamming my wrist right into the dashboard at an unencumbered 45 mph to dead stop. Unfortunately, my wrist did not break that time. Instead, it simply absorbed all the impact in the bones. The bruise was so deep it didn't even show up for another month, when all of a sudden this strange purple, yellow, and green coloration surfaced on my upper forearm.

And now, this wrist is my constant reminder to slow down and to be careful and gentle and enjoy some of the more subtle things in life. Which brings me to: children.

My daughter Alyson is a completely physical girl. When she's not playing outside, she's playing Wii Sports or wrestling or hooping. And naturally she wants me to share these activities with her. So the other day on the Wii, my wrist really starts to complain, and I beg out of the game.

Today, we play basketball, where by both height and skill she is woefully outmatched, and with pain shooting through my dribbling arm, I have a Eureka moment: I can play the whole game with my left hand lead!

Now, gentle readers: brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand is one thing. Playing basketball, dribbling and shooting is a whole nother story... and, a great education. It was some of the funnest basketball I've ever played. :)