A Good Thing
Golf. I have pursued the sport with varying degrees of success over the years. Years marked mostly by massive failure. You’d think hitting a ball lying still at your feet would be a piece of cake. Think again. The ground is rough and uneven. The distance the little ball needs to travel varies as do the instruments used to impose your will. There are trees and streams and tall grass. Mostly there is your mind, and yesterday, mine refused to cooperate.
An entire week spent on the driving range striking balls with precision disappeared yesterday on a course just outside Burnet. There were the occasional shots of beauty, high floating balls landing close to pins, but mostly it was topped shots, shanks, and ugliness. I marched around wondering how things could have gone so wrong. I was consoled only by the knowledge that the very next round, indeed, the very next shot could be a thing of beauty and a gift of incredible joy. Maybe that’s the beauty of the game. It trains you to think about tomorrow and imagine only good things.
Luckily, my day was rescued in the evening when the golfing trio of me, my brother, and his friend from Houston, hooked up with a long-time friend of mine from Houston. We went to dinner, ate good food, then went to listen to music. Boys on a night out. The heat of the day disappeared in the evening breeze, the downbeat drummed, and good tunes were all around. We tapped our feet, danced a bit, and sang along. It was a good way to end a day as always, with a song in my heart, and the bad day of golf marked down as just one of those things that happen, even to good people. Now, I’m ready to see what Sunday brings because of music.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale