Golf as teacher
First season’s round of golf yesterday. I have two kinds of friends when it comes to golf. Those who can’t believe I would spend time on such a thing and those who can’t believe I wouldn’t spend more time with it.
I really don’t care either way. Golf, like everything else in life, is certainly not for everybody. I would never recommend it any more than I would recommend, let’s say, eating or breathing.
These days, it never ceases to amaze me how the game is constant practice in bringing attention back to the moment. Good shots and bad have the same way of eclipsing the here and now until we remember to return here, now. What I like about the game is that the feedback on how well we stay in the present is totally dependable. When we’re not present, we miss the next shot. That simple. And if we want to linger in what should have happened, we get to miss the next one just as well.
I don’t know. Is that a metaphor for life or what? To bring our attention to the present no matter how miserable or miraculous the last moment was. Maybe that’s why the relentless teacher of golf usually occurs in the most beautiful, bucolic landscapes on the planet - so that we have ample opportunity to be present when we are!
May 23rd, 2005 10:54
I believe I’m on the record with the observation that for me, at least, golf has too many associations with Eisenhower and the ’50s. But I’m softening on that point.
May 23rd, 2005 15:32
John, I’m thankful I don’t know anyone else who talks about either Eisenhower or the 50’s in an association even with golf. That speaks, I suppose, to your uniqueness, which I treasure, and the possibility of a brighter future for golf, which I will also enjoy as I age like fine cheese.
May 24th, 2005 14:05
As the Seinfeld cast likes to say, “not that there’s anything wrong with that…” And indeed, the decade of the ’50s is often caricaturized as a simple time when it was anything but. And Ike looks pretty good in retrospect for his wise management of the Cold War and his warnings about the military-industrial complex. So everyone and everything has its good side, if you’re prepared to see it. Tiger and his appealing multiracial heritage and superhuman dedication to his craft is a more fitting standard-bearer for contemporary golf.
May 24th, 2005 19:32
Indeed. Would that Ike’s wisdom have carried on in the genes of some of political successors.
May 26th, 2005 08:39
Say amen, brother. I was of course thinking that very thing as I wrote that line.