Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/496918
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 2 5 I t's pure conjecture, of course, regarding the sporting life . . . just how many instances of transience in the recent history of man have been prompted by CMD (self-inflicted, Cardio-Momentary Anxiety Dysfunction)? We tend to laugh about it. But, then, nobody's ever questioned it could happen. Who's to truly know? I, myself, have flirted with infarction upon many explosive occasions, succumbing for uncertain seconds, until time caught up again and told me I was still ticking. I'm sure if you search the stacks across the years, you can catalog any number of similarly hazardous and instantaneous disruptions in your own life. Mine started with Mama's sudden, unworldly screech when I was two, which startled me much worse than the copperhead I was playing with under the rosebush. That I survived must surely be attributed to my then- tender age and unobstructed capillaries. Nowadays—again— who knows? Now that we're all older and have eaten a homemade ham biscuit or so too many, the odds no doubt have spiked a bit. What is certain is that we're placed at risk almost continuously. And still we go. How unhealthy is that? Think about it. We start out under unrelenting caution from our folks about brooding danger— "bears in the woods"—and what do we end up craving more than life itself—bears in the woods. 'Course it doesn't really take polar bears or leopards or lions or boomer-slangs in south Tibet to punch the ticket. The etiology is much simpler. Fortunately, there's plenty of lurking jeopardy a lot handier to home. Even a journey- level epidemiologist, searching for i r s t L i g h t F Mike Gaddis When your time has finally come, what could be better than to choose your own demise. Puts a whole new dimension on "places of the heart." Linked to a feisty largemouth bass bursting from a secluded pond . . . What a beautiful passing. evidentiary moments of cause-and- effect, would finger sportsmen and CMD right off the pickle boat. Paranoia these days running as SOC CLAY