THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JON
By Peter Vuono
December and January were tough months for me; or so I thought. I contracted a sinus infection for the entire month of December and ended the month by falling down the stairs on 12/27 in our first snow storm shoveling snow. I had been trying to train around this for a powerlifting meet I was going to enter on 1/10.Little did I know, that the chemistry of the infection would render me powerless.
Infections cause an increase of cortisol; a hormone that shuts down the HPTA- or the hypothalamic, pituitary testes axis. This is the testosterone making process of the body. I went from a total testosterone of 640 ng/dl to 482 ng/dl. Needles to say, I bombed at the contest missing ALL my attempts. I started feeling sorry for myself and my daughter Amy even contacted wrestler Jake Roberts to send a video to cheer me up! However, I finally became "woke" when I looked down at the shirt I was wearing that my friend Jon gave me. It had on it praying hands with the inscription "I'm blessed" on it. On the hand was a tattoo of the word, "iron". Jon got it from the famed Iron Addicts Gym of Long Beach.
Jon is a bit of a renaissance man as he's a great football player, a bodybuilder, a dog lover, an ordained minister, a doting dad and grandfather and he is to computers what Barry Kasparov is to chess!! The first thing I could think of as I looked down at it was the famous quote from Jonathan Swift's book- Friendly Conversations". It read, "There's none so blind as those that will not see". It's true; I couldn't see the forest for the trees!
I survived a heart attack, open heart surgery, a knee replacement and two other surgeries only to go to and compete in no fewer than 9 power meets in 3 leagues after all the surgeries. I have a wonderful wife of 47 years, two wonderful kids, a magnificent and loving rescue pug, a roof over my head and heat. I had no right to feel sorry for myself because among the abovementioned blessings I also had my faith.
So my message to you today is that you should try to contemplate the blessings that you do have when things get rough. If you do, you'll spend more time on the needs of others rather than on yourself. So take a look at this shirt and try your best to remember the Gospel according to Jon.
