I don't get excited very often, but I did tonight when Iowa's 165-pounder upset Okie State's wrestler for the individual NCAA title, coming from behind in the last 30 seconds with a reversal and back points.
Iowa as a team placed a dismal 8th (would've been 10th without the finals win). Not enough stallions in the barn, too many mares.
Wrestling's not a big part of my life anymore, but I still draw on my own experiences in the way I approach a lot of things, and I still like to watch good matches. Going to Iowa 20 years ago was among the most harebrained things I ever did. And probably, in retrospect, the smartest.
It gave me some black-and-whites to sharpen my aresenal of pragmatic shades of gray. In wrestling you win or you lose. The outcome depends entirely on you, and sometimes literally one second separates the best feeling in the world from the worst. It's hard to top that, in terms of learning about your limits, your character, your strengths, your weaknesses. Anything that makes you more confident and more humble at the same time gets a passing grade in my book.
So much of life is veneer. Wrestling is irrelevant, but it's pure.
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