The Sage of the Silver Ball: How Peter’s Pinball Quest Became an Epic Health Investment

If you had told me a 70-year-old man and a pinball machine would redefine my understanding of health, I would have assumed you were pitching me a very strange movie. And yet here we are. The truth is wilder, funnier, and more meaningful than anything I could have imagined.

Some of my closest friends are 20, 30, sometimes 40 years my senior. There is something uniquely grounding about relationships that stretch across generations. The stories, the humor, the perspective, the lived wisdom are immeasurable. Peter is one of those people for me. For almost a decade, we have shared meals, concerts, holidays, books, philosophical rabbit holes, and even a road trip to see Andrew Huberman. He is equal parts sage, mischief-maker, and truth-teller.

He is also the man who starts new hobbies like most people start streaming shows.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for the day Peter rediscovered pinball.

The Day the Legend Stirred

When Peter played basketball in his younger years, he had a powerful “why” that kept him moving. But life shifts, seasons change, and sometimes old motivations lose their spark. He and I often talk about the influence of environment on behavior, how the right setting at the right moment can bring someone back to life in unexpected ways.

And then, out of nowhere, pinball returned. A pastime from his youth. A nearly forgotten portal back to joy. And something in him clicked, like a silver ball striking a bumper and lighting up a machine for the first time in decades.

It was the silver ball that summoned a 70-year-old warrior back into flow state.

Between becoming a grandfather and rediscovering this competitive, meditative, beautifully chaotic game, Peter found two of his biggest “whys” in this stage of life. Joy returned with force. Purpose resurfaced. And without forcing anything, his behaviors began to shift too.

Enter: The Western Mass Coliseum of Silver and Light

This rediscovery led him to Western Mass Pinball Club in Palmer, MA, a cathedral of neon, nostalgia, and noise, where flippers echo like ancient runes and seasoned players move with monk-like focus.

This is where Peter earned his mythic title: The Sage of the Silver Ball.

He found a tribe of mentors, competitors, and friends. He learned strategies, sharpened his timing, understood each machine’s personality, and even traveled to spend time with some of the best players in New England. What looked like “just a game” from the outside quickly revealed itself to be a full-fledged wellness ecosystem.

The Behaviors That Emerged Naturally

Here is what fascinates me most: Peter did not set out to “get healthier.” He set out to get better at pinball, and everything else followed.

Pinball became his cardio. His meditation. His competitive outlet. His reason to stretch hamstrings again.

social: He built an entirely new friend group, found mentors, and became part of a vibrant community at Western Mass Pinball Club.
environmental: He entered new spaces filled with energy, creativity, and shared enthusiasm, each environment pulling healthier behaviors out of him.
physical: Pinball demands stamina, stability, and quick reaction time. So Peter began strength training again, cleaned up his diet, and explored PT to keep himself sharp and mobile.
intellectual: Every machine is a puzzle. A living system. A code to crack. Peter immersed himself in understanding lanes, modes, scoring, and sequencing.
emotional: Between his grandkids and the thrill of each game, Peter’s joy became unmistakable, the kind that spills out and touches everyone around him.
spiritual: There is something quietly sacred about flow states, about being so immersed in play that the world softens around you. Peter found that again.

Improved diet, better sleep, supplements, physical therapy, strength training, none of this came from discipline. It came from identity. From joy. From meaning. From environment.

This is the essence of Health401k®, behaviors that emerge naturally when your “why” awakens.

The Most Unexpected Ripple

For years, I wanted two friends of mine, Peter and Andrew, to meet. I always sensed they were cut from the same cloth. Kindred spirits. Flow-state thinkers. Deep feelers.

And what finally brought them together?

Pinball.

That is the power of the right environment: people who should know one another finally collide.

Health May Not Look Like You Think

To the casual observer, pinball might not look like a health investment at all. But the truth is that health is always contextual. It is personal. It is rooted in meaning and environment, not checklists and compliance.

Just like a financial portfolio, your Health401k® grows when you diversify your time, energy, and resources across the eight dimensions of health: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual.

Peter was not “working on his health.” He was working on his joy, and health came along for the ride.

Local Business Spotlight

Community environments are catalysts for identity shifts. This one deserves recognition:

Western Mass Pinball Club (Palmer, MA), a vibrant, electric environment where beginners, experts, and legends like Peter gather to compete, connect, and rediscover flow.

Spaces like this do more than entertain. They give people back parts of themselves they thought were gone.

Thank You, Peter

Thank you for your friendship, your curiosity, your humor, and your unwavering commitment to living a life filled with meaning, connection, and play. Thank you for reminding all of us that inspiration is not reserved for the young, and that rediscovering joy can change the trajectory of your well-being.

Most of all, thank you for showing that sometimes, the most powerful health investment is simply following the silver ball wherever it wants to take you.

Ryan Travis Woods

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