Michael Holding, the art of fast bowling and Peter Pan

Yes, I confess I am above 40. And this article is about that. And fast bowling. And Peter Pan.

So does life begins at 40? Yes it does. But again it does not.

One of the greatest cricketing fast bowlers of all times, Michael Holding had this to say about fast bowling:

“Fast bowling is an art. Too bad, by the time you master it, you are too old to bowl fast”.

How true. Fast bowlers appear on the horizon at a young age say early 20s when they have the exuberance of youth, the strength and the passion to bowl fast but do not understand the game as they should. They lack a “head” for cricket and focus on bowling fast and not on bowling intelligently. Of course this is changing now with the technology and excessive coaching available fast bowlers are becoming better at the art of fast bowling at a younger age than it was in Holdings times.

Enough of fast bowling. What does it have to do with life ? Well, the similarity of Holding’s quote on learning an art only when you are too old to practice it, is amazing. Holding was a genuine fast bowler who became better as he slowed down his pace. Yes, by the time he became really good at the art of fast bowling he had lost the muscular power of youth (and the passionate desire) that is needed to bowl fast. That’s exactly how we all start off our life after the teen years. Fast and furious and pace ourselves faster than what is needed and use less of our wisdom BUT then at that age just like Holding we have not accumulated the knowledge of fast bowling or the wisdom to slow down and live life slower and at the right pace.

Yes, 20 years later we have had far more life experiences and can look back and say yes we could have things done differently. But then the experiences of the past years do not repeat. What we have now is the wisdom of 20 plus years for each experience and see them in a flashback and know all the goof ups we did. If only we could be born with the knowledge that we are going to gain from our experiences throughout our life and then live this life with that knowledge, wouldn’t it be wonderful? But then everything would be known and then what is the need for any experiences at all? Don’t we go through life’s experiences in order to learn? Each of us is nothing but the sum total of our experiences that we keep accumulating throughout our life.

So yes, in your 40s you are in a better position to “play” the experiences of 20s. But the universe is smarter than us. We get a different set of experiences with age. The universe does not reveal its mysteries once and for all. There is always something at each age and we have to live our age. The lessons are always learnt in the past. The universe keeps ahead of us as we learn our lessons so that even though we are older and are equipped with more wisdom and understanding and maturity, the experiences are not repeated in the same form but are repackaged and presented so that they pose the same degree of challenges throughout our lives. Just like the fast bowler who is only blessed with first the youthful strength only to lose it in inverse proportion with age as he understands the very art of fast bowling. That’s why we always keep going in our past and replay certain (unpleasant) events based on our current wisdom and wish we had done things differently.

BUT this is the only way to learn. With age we are better able to analyze the past events of our lives and see the effect it had on us and our other companions and it helps us improve our future lives. ONLY to find that the universe has increased the level of our future lessons and tests so that the going remains equally tough if not tougher with age. Just like the master teacher who knows his student so very well and sets the question paper based on his learning. And as the student masters the lesson better, the questions keep getting tough in direct proportion so the degree of difficulty of solving the questions remains the same.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of us remained like Peter Pan as the boy who never grew up? And could feel the thrill of bowling fast forever? There is a Peter Pan in all of us. As we grow with wisdom we give up on fairy tales and leave Peter Pan behind and along with it our youthful exuberance and the accompanying intensity and passion boys carry in all they do. If we can somehow find a way to continue believing in fairies and Peter Pan we will carry the youthful qualities of a fast bowler – youth, exuberance, self belief, intensity and of course limitless passion as we age and will be able to live a more complete experience.

Peter Pan was able to fly because he never grew up and so continued to believe that he could fly. As we grow up, knowledge replaces our faith in small things and our wings fall off. We are embarrassed to think we ever believed in Peter Pan. And later on as we enter old age always wonder about getting back the intensity, the passion of youth, but little do we realize that we killed these qualities by ceasing to believe that great experiences of life are flavorless without feeling them with intensity of purpose and passion.

The other problem is that most of us cannot remain Peter Pan because when we interact with others we have to be different. You are not expected in your 40s to carry the enthusiasm of a boy. Its not an expected behaviour pattern and as we age we always want to show that we have matured. If we don't kill the Peter Pan in us as we age people around us do it. be your age, come on, how can you get so excited about such a small thing and so on. This is kind of strange because we lose moments of life which even at older age can be lived differently. Again it is a conceptual behaviour pattern I am talking here. Continuing the analogy one obviously can't bowl like a 20 year old later on in life but if we can carry the same qualities in abundance a fast bowler (which incidentally are a hindrance in becoming a better bowler) and bring the thrill, the intense desire and the passion in things we do as we get older we can enjoy every moment in life. This doesn't mean that one has to dance and run around with hair flying (if any hair is left at this stage) while watering the plants. The qualities of finding a thrill, intensity joy and passion in everything we do is more a condition of our mind than of our physical behaviour. If we can do that the combination is a perfect cocktail for enjoying every moment of life and our experiences (particularly the small ones) are amplified.

Just look up and see the expression on Peter Pan’s face flying with Tinker Bell and you will know what I mean. As for Tinker Bell,,,well that’s another fairy……oops…I mean another story.