In the Clearing Stands a Boxer...

"If there's magic in boxing, it's the magic of fighting battles beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retinas. It's the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.

- Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris as portrayed by Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby

Any movie with a Morgan Freeman voiceover is a good movie in my book--Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby come to mind immediately. Although I didn't like all the white trash stereotypes that entered into the movie or the whole thing about the Hillary Swank character getting paralyzed. Anyway.....

As part of my new workout routine I jump rope for at least 15 minutes a day. It's a great workout. It burns the lungs, works the stabilizer muscles in the shoulders, and the calves. Sometimes when I am hitting the rope and am in a good groove, I imagine a Morgan Freeman voiceover inserted into the soundtrack of my life. I hear the man saying the above sequence, only tailored to accounting. I imagine that beautifully weathered voice talking about footing the 10-K over and over and over, tieing out the document to make sure each number is perfect, then doing a clean read late into the night; working until the cleaning crew has left and leaving the office knowing that you have met the high standard of a professional. I usually have these thoughts during my 5 AM workouts when I am a little bit loopy. I also imagine my company's CFO saying, "Hit 'em in the head! Hit 'em in the stomach!," in his beautiful Scottish brogue while I am jumping rope.

So what's new with me? Not a whole lot, really. I haven't written much lately as my colleagues and I are up to our shoulders in SEC reporting fun. I've worked each weekend since returning back from Christmas vacation, and the work is starting to take its toll on my mind--in case the jump rope sequence wasn't any indication of this. I had breakfast with a friend of mine this morning, and my contribution to the conversation was all over the place. Random thought I had had over the past several weeks which had not been articulated previously came flowing out of my mouth even though they didn't relate to the conversation at hand. My mind is trying to funnel out all the backlog of thoughts that it has been harboring for the past several weeks. Whether you like it or not, often times one's mouth has a mind of it's own.

My plan for tomorrow is simple: decompress. I don't know exactly what will happen, but I have images of sleeping in, sitting on my back patio with an enormous cup of coffee, and enjoying the beautiful weather of Phoenix without an agenda.

Those are all my thoughts for now.

Namaste