I'm on the sidelines going through my normal routine, stretching, staying loose. I didn't notice the noise or the excitement. My focus was like tunnel vision.

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.

Because of all the excitement surrounding the trip, and the change in routine, it's easy to set one of those small items down somewhere and lose it. Because most people don't put identifying information on portable electronics, even if someone with good intentions finds one, the owner has little chance of seeing the item again. But there is something you can do to turn the tide in your favor.

No one can deny the excitement of visiting another world.

The spectacle takes us away from our routines. For at least a time, we feel part of something big, colorful, exciting. It is perhaps understandable that civilians are often more enthusiastic during wartime than soldiers who have experienced battle. The soldiers know that war is often boring and dirty as well as terrifying and colorful. Even so, after some years, an old soldier like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., could brush aside his earlier description of the pain, boredom, and death of war and declare that “its message was divine.” The stench disappears, but the spectacle remains in memory’s eye.

Jim O'Brien, who kicked that field goal in 1970 that won the Super Bowl for the Baltimore Colts, said that kick gave him his 15 minutes of fame. And it has lasted 25-plus years. I feel the same way.