Too often we get caught up in the Rat Race.  The turbidity of every day life melts into weeks and months and years and before you know it we have lived a lifetime.  The winter season is especially physically and mentally draining I think due to the long periods of darkness and our entombment inside without sun, and fresh air to energize us.  For the golfer, or hacker as I am, the first sign of winter’s end is the beginning of golf.  The clubs move out of the garage and into the back seat and golf balls are scrounged from every corner of the house where they have laid dormant all winter waiting to be driven, pitched, wedged, lobbed, and putted.  Golf for me is a day away from work but also a covenant with the Gods of Fortune.  If I should be brave and take whatever they dish out to me on the course then I deserve the fresh air and sunshine.  If I should play without  acknowledging the good fortune and instead credit my skill for great shots then I am damned to the stresses that life creates.

Last week I played my first golf of the season – a quick nine holes with he that is indecisive.  My indecisive friend is like myself a hacker but he lets the game bend him into a pretzel emotionally.  He lets out all his work tension and replaces it with golf tension for the time that we are out on the course.  As soon as we finish a round however he morphs back into a Rat Racer.  He looks for excuses in every missed shot and cannot admit he was not meant to be a golfer in his forties.  Clubs really do a lot of the work in the game especially for the weaker golfer but if the mechanics are weak then the game will falter.  Occasionally a great shot is made and for that moment time stands still and the world is as it should be.  I like playing with Mr Indecisive because he competes – he loves to win but never revels in the victory rather keeping a mental tally.  He measures the opposition by the length of their drive rather than the mettle of their character on the course.  There is nothing wrong with competition.  I just am not that competitive.  Golf for me, as I stated is a day away from work when I can ignore the emails and think only of how to shoot for the green when my ball is sitting behind a tree.

Today Mr. Indecisive, Mr. Crown and Ginger and myself met up for round at 8:30 this morning.  The dew was still on the ground and then there was a chill in the air.  We were unphased.  We had come to golf and that’s what we would do.  The round was going well with each of us having good and bad holes.  On the second last hole of the first nine, which was actually the back nine because we started on the 10th tee Mr. Crown and Ginger committed a violation of the Most Important Rule in Golf.   Without thinking he walked in the way of Mr. Indecisive who was taking his second shot from a spot way off the Par 3.  Mr Crown and Ginger got crowned in the temple by an errant shot.  This was his penalty for breaking the rule.  Thankfully his apparently thick skull only gave up a small contusion and bump with a little surface bleeding.  He went down quickly, realizing he had been hit but bounced back just as quick.  Mr. Indecisive had lost his ball in the water off the richochet .  As for the victim, he managed a par on the hole – his reward for the taking the pain like a man and admitting his error which kept Mr. Indecisive grounded.

We finished the round, we carried on and I’m sure we all learned that life really is too short.  A miscalculation almost caused a tragedy. Life is about moving forward and not getting bogged down.  Life like golf is a day in the sun and fresh air – enjoy it……..