It's Never Too Late: The Triumphant Return of Alan Moore

I don’t want to have regrets. I guess none of us do. I have said many times that I can’t regret anything that has happened, because I am so happy with where I have ended up. I believe that somehow-- through fate or some crazy set of coincidences-- I am where I am supposed to be. But, if I am being honest, there are things both big and small that I regret. I have made peace with most things, and I think that is the the best I can do.

What I love about this profile on CNN, is that it teaches the lesson that it’s never too late. Even things that sound and seem crazy are attainable. Maybe not in the perfect way you once imagined, but in some way that resembles that dream and makes you feel complete.

So, imagine that your 61 year-old father or grandfather (or uncle or friend) told you he wanted to play college football. Can you imagine your response? It seems crazy, ridiculous, impossible.

Alan Moore made it a reality. At the age of 61, Moore is a kicker on the Faulkner University football team in Montgomery, Alabama, and is the oldest player to ever score in a college football game.

So many times, life itself gets in the way of our dreams. For Moore, it was the Vietnam War and then the need to support himself after coming home. He wasn’t able to go back to college, to pick up where he left off.

Not until now.

He kicks with a shoe with the word BELIEVE painted across the top. He mentions his mother a lot, and his memories of making her proud as a kicker for his small college before the war.

She would be proud now, too.

One of my favorite lines from Moore is "Assholes are great motivators." He said this in reference to those who didn't believe in him, or even made fun of his ambition to return to kicking. He speaks the truth. In the past, there were times when the people who didn't believe in me, who banked on my failure, alternately motivated me more than anyone or anything else.

But what is a also a great motivator is seeing someone put words into action, someone who makes the impossible seem doable.

Someone who makes my dreams, in comparison, seem easily attainable.

Someone like Alan Moore.

Alan Moore with his five grandchildren.

Please read the full profile of Alan Moore here.

 All photos courtesy of Faulkner University and CNN.