Rant #2,646: You Can Make It If You Try

This past weekend, I pretty much relaxed after a very, very difficult week.
 
I was literally chained to my computer the entire week, doing work for my remote job, and happily, that is over.
 
I was kind of blindsided by the week and all the work I had to do, but it is pretty much all done, and all in.
 
So this past weekend, I did what I had to do, and I also relaxed quite a bit.
 
One of the ways that I relax on the weekend is that I take my son to his athletic activities, namely basketball on Friday night and bowling on Saturday afternoons.
 
He has been participating in these sports for the past several years, through programs run by the Police Athletic League’s division devoted to young people with disabilities, the Special Needs Unit.
 
This group puts on all different sporting and other activities for people with any number of disabilities, and it has been a godsend for my son, keeping him active and engaged with others like him.
 
No judgment is made on anyone in this group.
 
Some of them have slight mental and/or physical disabilities, others have major disabilities, but in this group, the participants are all equal, and nobody looks down on anybody else for any reason.
 
The past year had been a tough one for these groups, because the pandemic canceled all such activities for many months, and my son and others like him were robbed of not only the athletic endeavors, but they were robbed of their social activity, too.
 
But last fall, I knew that things were getting better for my son, and everyone on the whole, when these activities ramped up again.
 
And now, with the restrictions and protocols a bit lessened in society, and with every precaution possible still taken, my son and the other participants can pretty much go back to what they were doing, which is play competitively.
 
He had already been doing that in his bowling league, but over the past few weeks, he has finally been able to do that in the basketball group, and every Friday, the participants play in organized games.
 
Unlike his bowling league, where records are kept, the basketball league is really for 100 percent fun, and no records are kept, but the participants do get a real workout, playing end to end basketball.
 
It is fun, and it is also relaxing to me, and heartening to me, to see my son participate in these sports, and also to see how he has matured over the years.
 
He is 25 years old, and will be 26 in August. Most of the people in these groups are around the age, some younger, some older, into their 30s.
 
But they need activities like this, because society often forgets these people, whether athletically, socially, or even employment-wise.
 
During the height of the pandemic, my son sat around, through no fault of his own, because everything he did was canceled due to supposed safety.
 
Thus, he and others like him lost their athletic endeavors, lost their jobs, and pretty much lost hope—not just people like himself, but millions of others went through this for months just a year ago.
 
Even now, this group is suffering.
 
I would say just through speaking to people at these endeavors, that probably about maybe seven or eight of 10 of them are still not working, losing whatever jobs they had over the past year … and those jobs are never coming back.
 
That happened to my son’s job, where he was put on furlough, was still kept in the loop by what turned out to be his former place of business, and then was unceremoniously cast aside.
 
Thank God he was able to get another job, albeit one where he only works a few days a week on a part time basis, but it is something—most people in his situation don’t have even this to look forward to each week.
 
And I see my son’s progress, from sitting around doing very little because his world was pretty much shut down, to being active and busy at least a couple of days a week.
 
And as I see him run up and down the basketball court or throw his bowling ball down the lanes, I really get into it, and I cheer him on, just like all the parents cheer on their children participating in these sports.
 
And I cheer him on when he is at work. I’m not there, but I drive him back and forth, and when I pick him up after his workday is done, I always ask him how the day went and what his upcoming work days are.
 
I think back to years ago, when the school system he was in couldn’t put a handle on him, couldn’t place him correctly, and pretty much let him down from the get go with a diagnosis from a professional that they pointed us towards who decided that from one single meeting with him, that this then-little boy would never amount to anything, wouldn’t be able to do anything, and was doomed to a life of nothing.
 
My wife and I did not accept that idiotic diagnosis, and over the years, our son has proven the skeptics wrong time and time again.
 
As long as the opportunity is there—and the opportunity is there through employers who understand, and through the Police Athletic League—he and others like him are not cast aside, but become productive members of society.
 
So when I see my son play basketball and roll the ball done the lane while bowling—and I remember the eight years he played Little League baseball and the fact that he has been working since he was 15 years of age--I just remember back to those darker times, and I get a lot of nockus from seeing what he can do, rather than what he was told he could never do by supposed medical experts.
 
And let me tell you, that is so pleasurable, so relaxing, and so rewarding to see this unfold right before my eyes.
 
And by the way, my son had a great basketball day this past Friday, running up and down the court with aplomb, grabbing several rebounds and making several nice shots.
 
And in bowling, his team is in fifth place in his league of 10 teams, he has a 130 average or so, and this week he bowled at 134 and a 157.
 
He also works three days this week, including today.
 
Not bad for someone who was told all those years ago that he wouldn’t be able to do anything by someone with a medical degree who judged our son on whether he could catch a bouncing rubber ball or not.

And this person used an antiquated term in her summation, a term that is frowned upon and no medical expert in their right mind would ever use today--I will let you figure it out--but that is how this person with degree on top of degree described this kid.
 
I kid you not about that.
 
And I kid you not that when he participates in all of these endeavors, I get a tremendous sense of pride about his life, and what his possibilities are in the future.

 
And they are as lofty as the sky is high.