Page 2 - MidWeek - April 27, 2022

2 MIDWEEK APRIL 27, 2022
Dreaming Of Time Travel
“If my father could watch my son for a while, he might realize his own immortality.” — Lincoln Steffens
IBack In The Game
Ilost sleep in early August watching the late-night broadcasts of the Unit- ed States’ wrestling teams winning medals at the To- kyo Olympic Games. From my life in the sport, I knew some of the Olympic wres- tlers and many of the coach- es. Because I stayed up late, the next day I dozed at work, dreaming of immortality.
was used to my weekend routine — shower after golf, and that was it for the day. By 2 p.m., my live Saturday-Sunday contact with outside humans of-
my office after watching the Olympic wrestlers compete the night before, I dreamed about my life in wrestling and of my grandsons. While I don’t care if my grandsons wrestle, I want them to be time travelers. I want them to live happy lives, fulfilled by doing something noble in concert with others. I want them to be tenacious about becoming better people. And if they do, then my wrestling coaches and I will live forev- er. We will be immortal.
John Schmidtke is an attor- ney in Honolulu. He received a master’s degree in fine arts from Goddard College.
Chasing The Light is pro- duced by Robin Stephens Rohr and Lynne Johnson.
ten ceased to exist for two years. But last weekend, a strange sensation overcame me post-golf. I realized that we actually had plans for Saturday night, plans involving other mortals. No books, crosswords, Zoom calls, binge/ cringe-watching, numbing news numbers or construct- ing my 453rd Spotify music playlist.
My dreams started when I was in fourth grade. My neighbor was a high school wrestling champ. Inspired by him, I wrestled in high school and college. I then coached the sport while in law school and after I started my law practice. Eventual- ly, I coached with teams that represented the United States internationally. While I’ve made my living as a lawyer, I’ve made my life as a coach.
We’d actually made dinner plans to see people we hadn’t seen for over two years. Yeah, the world is still frazzled, the country is still polarized, but some things are getting back to recognizable, positive normalcy. As I also attended my first large-scale group event last week, it almost feels like the parties Prince told us about in 1999!
Wrestling has taught the author to have fun in pursuit of excellence.
Streets full of cars and a lack of parking spaces every- where mixed in with recurring sagas that simply never get handled locally — Laniākea parking, the Stairway to Heaven dilemma, UH autonomy, illegal short-term rentals, the lack of truly affordable housing, sovereignty, planned economic diversity, North Shore sand berms brunting nature’s ways. It all feels so normal again. We may have a plethora of local problems, but at least they’re our problems. We see ’em, we own ’em, and I guess we love ’em, since we never seem to resolve ’em with final actions and solutions, not just words or edicts. So who needs COVID?!
simple: Have fun in pursuit of excellence. Work with team- mates to achieve a common noble goal. Never give up. Honor the sport. Use wres- tling to make yourself a better person. Pass it on. You’ve got to pass it on.
the tournament, I listened to the Greco-Roman coach pass it on.
Add in indecision on the TMT debacle, Waikīkī Na- tatorium stasis, rapid (or vapid) transit, wayward feral chickens, Ala Wai Canal cleanup/flood mitigation, Red Hill water woes (who knew?), homes for a new O‘ahu prison and a new O‘ahu landfill, and yes, you can see things really are getting back to normal. No runs, no hits, just errors. While we were bubbled, almost nothing changed as little of the big stuff was fixed. But move over omicron, because the boyz and girlz are back in town and ready to (safely) party hardy!
KELLEY
Everything I am as a person comes from what I learned on the mat. The rules my coaches taught me were
“You wrestlers are time travelers,” he said. “You take our pasts into wrestling’s fu- ture.”
New Century Schoolbook bold (scaled H 73.6)
Several years ago, I worked with the U.S. teams at the world championships. After
The team leaned in to hear.
“You make us live forever. You make us immortal.”
In August, as I dozed in
with John Schmidtke
Our outdoor Saturday dinner was great, as we caught up on life, family, work and included the occasional whine (that comes with wine) about things never getting done locally — all edified live and in person!
I’ll soon seek my first post-bubble concert venture to aid in restoring order to my personal universe. I’ll keep a mask handy for safety, and perhaps to avoid “Ainokea” anarchists in our midst. Party on!
Think about it ...
john@thinkaboutithawaii.com