The new year always gets busier than I want it to be. The coming of 2008 is certainly no exception. And the busier I am, the less I think about wrestling. And that's a good thing for me, at least from time to time. I have a tendency to obsess about it--as this blog proves. When I have time away from thinking about wrestling, I find it refreshing. Such times clear my head just as a good wrestling experience does.

Near the end of last year, I became somewhat discouraged about myself as a wrestler. I didn't want to see that I wasn't very good. I didn't want to see that perhaps I was more into the eroticism of it than I was the competitive parts. But those feelings have faded a bit. I don't know if they've faded because of distance from the event or because of some rethinking a good friend and I have done. All I know is that I have another match coming up on 30 January and that I'm looking forward to it. In part this anticipation must have to do with the fact that I'm wrestling my good friend that day. Also in part, the anticipation has to do with some ideas we've discussed for the match. For example, I'll wear a mask, which I haven't done before. My main reason for doing this is to protect the long and thinning hair that becomes a handicap to my concentration whenever I'm wrestling seriously. The mask might also give my attitude an edge that might in turn raise my level of aggression a notch to match somewhat better with that of my friendly opponent. We have a couple of other "match" changes under discussion, and I'll write about those soon.

As for life, it's pretty good right now. The world confuses to the point of frightening, but I'm balancing it fairly well. I live in one of the 5 February primary states, so I'm starting to think some about voting. I've refused to think of it much before this, in personal protest against the sudden extension of the campaign season. How long has this election been going on? How long does it have left to go? The answer to both questions is too long. I believe it's criminal the amount of money the candidates are spending to be elected. I believe it's criminal the amount of money required to be elected. I believe it's criminal that those candidates currently serving in another capacity--as a U.S. Senator, say--are spending so much time away from the jobs they were elected to do and are currently being paid to do. Those people and places who elected these candidates as their representatives ought to be pissed off.

Personally, I'm still wrestling with the angel or wrestling with God. Our pastor at church recently included in the service a renewal covenant that John Wesley used to do with the early Methodists. It called for absolute honesty and had a place for a signature at the end. I couldn't sign it--at least I was that honest. Sneaking around to wrestle when I'm supposed to be doing something else--whether or not anything illicit is going on--is dishonest. But still I do it, all the while hoping that one of these days I'll either stop wrestling or figure out how to do it without half truths and misdirection. I rarely tell outright lies, but I'm not sure a difference really exists between lies and half truths.

If I had many millions of dollars and a desire to be president of the United States of America, I wonder what would happen when somebody discovered--and somebody would--that I've wrestled men in homes and hotel rooms across the country. What would happen to my campaign when somebody discovered that I like being caught in a good figure-4 head scissors. What might these truths reveal about me, and how would a public dazzled by the strange react?