Page 2 - MidWeek - Feb 9, 2022

2 MIDWEEK FEBRUARY 9, 2022
owies. We get back in (or stay in) the game.
Life and football are played in series. A series of events, a drive to attain a goal. These football/life met- aphors and similes never end should you choose to wax poetic. You gain a few yards, you lose a few yards. A first down equals success! You complete an exhilarating bomb. You fumble. The key to football (life) is how you respond. You’re surrounded with teammates (family, co-workers) over whom you often have no control. You deal with obstacles, pleasures, small wins and frustra- tions that make up football (life). You adapt or wither
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I froze in disbelief.
The Gift Of The Curse
T“Give yourself a gift: The present moment.” — Marcus Aurelius
or birth, as the entire game is in front of you. Throughout life, as at the start of the game, be as prepared as you can be. Educate yourself, constantly. Hopefully, you’ll have coaches (football) or parents/ mentors/friends (life) to teach you, motivate you, push you, exhort you and hug you, which makes it easier to succeed, however you define success, by providing you with life/game options. The more you learn about the world, the more options you’ll have, and the more
Weeks later, I quit my job to explore what I should do before I lose my mind.
Twenty-five years later, every day continues to be a precious gift.
prepared you’ll be for whatever’s out there.
Running game not working? You have to pass. Zone defense not slowing down the opposition? Time to play man-to-man. In life you do what works, hopefully with- in the rules. Start by getting educated. One thing they say is guaranteed in football is a 100% chance of injury. Creepy, but true. But such is life — no one goes unde- feated or uninjured, as we learn through resiliency, te- nacity, willpower and awareness as we overcome life’s
Traveling alone through Asia, I rested, reflected and sa- vored the wonder within each moment. What to do became clear: I want to live in Hawai‘i, to be with my children and grandsons, and to explore the potential of a budding romance.
either. I had to know because my budding romance with Vil- soni (Vili) Hereniko was now in full bloom.
and said: “Jeannette, regard- less of the result, I love you unconditionally and I want to marry you.”
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On our way to hear the results of my test I told Vili, with tears running down my cheeks, “ I can’t continue our relationship if I am going to lose my mind.” Before enter- ing the doctor’s office, Vili stopped me, took my hand
Entering his office, Dr. Ted Hsai did not waste an instant: “Jeannette, you do not have the defective gene.”
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he 1996 CNN head- line shattered my world: A recent study
IThe Game Of Life
documents that 50% of fam- ily members of immigrants from Walter, Russia, have a rare gene causing early Alz- heimer’s. There’s no test for the gene, and no cure for Alz- heimer’s.
t’s Super Bowl week, so I thought it might be fun to draw analogies between the games of football and life. It all starts at the beginning with the kickoff,
Anxiously, I counted rela- tives with early Alzheimer’s: cousins, an aunt, sister, moth- er and my grandfather, who came to America from the Vol- ga German village of Walter, Russia. Was I next?
as though it were my last, I experienced each day full of wonder and possibilities. I want to continue to embrace every moment, and I want to do it with you.”
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new test was developed so I
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could find out if I had the ear- ly Alzheimer’s gene. If not, my children wouldn’t have it
Recovering, I said to Vili, “Strangely, this curse gave me a gift. By living each day
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For the author and her husband, Vili, each day is a gift.
PHOTO COURTESY JEANNETTE PAULSON HERENIKO
Jeannette Paulson Hereniko is founding director of Hawai‘i International Film Festival (1981–1996) and the first di- rector of the Palm Springs International Film Festival (1990). Today, she is a film producer and licenses educa- tional rights of films. During the pandemic she launched a storytelling podcast at wildwis- domthepodcast.com.
Chasing The Light is pro- duced by Lynne Johnson and Robin Stephens Rohr.
KELLEY
with Jeannette Paulson Hereniko
— every day, every play.
Play outside the rules and you pay a price. And when
penalized (in life/football), often others suffer, too. Find what works best for you and go for it, but morph and adjust as the game (life) evolves. Don’t make as- sumptions; steel yourself for life’s hard hits. If you get the wind knocked out of you, regroup and get back in the game (concussions are different, of course).
However you define winning and losing in life, re- member that unlike the finality of a completed football game, as long as the sun rises, you always have tomor- row. So get in there and play hard!
Think about it...
john@thinkaboutithawaii.com