Off Base With Ryan Gorcey ... Hard Rhode To Travel

In Kevin Costner’s film adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s novel, Shoeless Joe, the character of Doc Graham speaks a line that should be heeded by young Mr. Rolle: “Now, if I had only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes, that would have been a tragedy.”  Listen well, Mr. Rolle. Because if you go the route of NFL stardom – in the same league as Adam “Pacman” Jones, Terrell Owens, and Chris Henry – five minutes may be all you see of the field before an unfortunate accident ends your career for good. There go the millions. There goes the Rhodes Scholarship. There goes all of those you may have helped. All it takes is one second for a promising career, with all of its millions in possible philanthropy, to drift away in a cloud of smoke and sweat.

My advice to you, the talented Mr. Rolle, is that the mind can last forever. It can be shared and expanded; it can inspire and it can create. The body however is fragile, and can only belong to one.  It cannot be expanded or enhanced and in itself, by itself, it cannot create. It cannot be shared, only appreciated aesthetically from afar. If it is broken it cannot repair itself.  If it is broken, it can no longer provide.

There have been too many selfish men that have taken the money and who have basked in the bright lights of professional sports, too many who have failed spectacularly on a national – and yes, international – stage. If you can make a difference, if you can buck the trend and share your inner beauty and limitless talent and potential with the world, then by all means do it.  You may not have the headlines and the adoration, but you will possess something far greater – a quiet sense of contentment, and a true sense of accomplishment. More than that, you will have shared yourself and your abilities with the world in a way that will not benefit the needs of the few, or the one. You will have helped to heal the wider world, which, in these dark times, needs a physician like you.

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