Civilian Ministry
With my release from active duty as a Regular Army officer that year, I returned to the civilian ministry. The end of the military duty, sadly, was also the end of keeping in good physical condition for almost 30 years. I entered into the sedentary life of a rural clergyman, more devoted to books and philosophical/theological concerns than physical condition. The 30 years saw a rapid and continued decline in my physique. In 1992, I retired from the active ministry and moved to Dallas from Oklahoma.
I was aware that my nature still called me to edge play and I tried such, but my now-deteriorated physique did not measure up to those extremes. I also was then diagnosed with cancer of the prostate and underwent a radical prostatectomy.
That surgery was then thought to have removed all the cancer. While still longing, as I had in my youth, to have a good physique, I believed that I was now "too old" and should just take it easy until "the end".
