We Need Our “Second Wind”!

I've always loved playing sports! Seeing its spring and “the boys of summer” have had to remain in their dugouts, let me bring happier thoughts into your minds by saying my favorite sport was baseball.

As a young bambino, being bigger and stronger than most my age meant I could throw faster and hit further.  Not only that but having three older very athletic brothers forced me to perform well above my abilities just to be able to keep up with them.

Now when I say I was “big” for my age, what I really mean is I was “fat”!  In today’s politically correct language I guess you would say I was “big-boned”. That mainly came from a mother who excelled in Italian cooking and all too often would repeat the phrase, “eat… you have to eat to get strong!”. Well, mother knows best, so I did as she instructed-and as a result I got fa… ah, “big boned”.

As I grew into my mid-teens and other in my age group started catching up to me in size and strength, I had to start training to compete.  Reality really set in when I wanted to play high school baseball.  It was at that point that I suddenly realized if I wanted to make the cut, I had to drop some weight.  So I started jogging.

The first couple of weeks into my new regimen, I thought “I was gonna die”! But as I lost weight and gained cardiovascular health, I found myself running longer and faster.  Then, one evening, near the end of an exhaustive run, I got this insane idea to keep on going.  I took a deep breath, regained my composure, and then miraculously got a tremendous surge of energy. At that point I knew I could run for the rest of the night.

To other athletes who have experienced this, you know exactly what happened-I found my “second wind”.  For those who haven’t experienced it, I can only explain it as an instantaneous energetic rejuvenation of body and soul that kicks you into a whole new level of competition. Remembering that experience and realizing that we’ve all been cooped up for at least a month now, it’s exactly what we all need, a second wind!

For inspiration I can share with you some real-life stories of those who are way ahead of us when it comes to rising to a whole new level of competition.  A little over a week ago, Charlie Fiechter, a friend of mine from California, called and ask if our brave Franklin first responders could use more surgical masks and gloves. I said yes and within a day we had hundreds of both appear at our fire station.  Charlie found his second wind.  We've had many caring city employees who in addition to doing a great job on the front lines are enthusiastically collecting and distributing food to our less fortunate.  They have found their second wind.  In the goodness of their hearts, we've had residents band together to clean-up our City’s riverbanks and street corners.  They have found their second wind.  All of these are examples of those who comprise the very best of humanity when times get tough.

So here are just a couple of examples where our fellow citizens have experienced that surge of energy, that rejuvenation of soul.  We've come so far but we're not there yet. Let’s use their examples to help us find that second wind we’ll need to win this war over our invisible enemy!

Tony Giunta, Mayor City of Franklin