Being Someone Else

If I could be someone else for 24 hours, who would I be?

My first thought goes to sports, then to my favorite sport (as a player), basketball. To be Larry Bird for 24 hours - not today, but back in his prime in the 80's - would be pretty cool. Especially on a game day. Better yet, a game seven in the champioship series against the Lakers. I'd get to experience first-hand Larry's amazing skills and have a chance to make the game-winning shot. That would be an amazing 24 hours.

Hmm. On second thought, I don't want to be Larry Bird. As cool as it would be to experience a day in the life of one of the best basketball players on the planet who also happens to be filty rich, what would be the point? It would have been much better to be myself and the premier player in the NBA. After all, basketball was always my favorite sport.

I spent all those days shooting hoops, from the time I was about 2 years old. Countless hours spent on the driveway or playground, making up moves and shooting from everywhere, dreaming about being the greatest player since ...

Silly dreams.

What about Peyton Manning? That would be pretty great, to be Peyton Manning for a day. Having his incredible skills to pick apart defenses plus being filthy rich. How about getting to be Peyton for 24 hours, the day of the AFC Championship game, against the Patriots of course. And passing for 450 yards and ten touchdowns to utterly embarass those Boston jerks. What fun that would be.

On second thought, if I were to be in that situation at all, I would much prefer to be there as myself, not Peyton Manning. There couldn't be much satisfaction from merely being there with Peyton's skills, as much fun as it might be. I couldn't really experience the satisfaction that comes with putting in a lifetime of practice and study, coming up short all those years in the NFL, then finally breaking through for the lifetime performance in the biggest game.

What about a famous singer or recording artist? Hmm, can't really think of anybody in that field I'd want to inhabit for a day. Most of them are wierd, druggies, from other cultures or races I'd have difficulty relating to, or all of the above. Again, I would much prefer to be there and experience all that as myself.

It has taken all of, umm, 48 years to figure this out:
If you have a dream, don't dream about being someone else, but go make your dream happen as yourself.

I suppose I'm a slow learner.