Humility

     Beth and I have been golfing a lot this year, and it is a wonderful opportunity to walk together and enjoy the day while also engaging in a sport that is relatively cheap.

As beginners we have experienced the frustrations of bad swings and other difficulties of the sport, and sometimes get disproportionately discouraged relative to what should be an enjoyable pastime. On Monday, Oct 1^st, while returning home from the Allentown area, we stopped at a new course to play nine holes and were humbled to see a man on the 3^rd green stumble from his golf cart onto the grass. From a distance his body movements resembled the stick like motions of a marionette figure whose elastic joints were unsupported by the puppeteer and he crumpled to the ground in a heap of human flesh. But that was normal for him and he dragged himself into a position sufficient to push a ball towards the hole with a club. With great effort he dragged himself back into the cart and sped off to the next green where he did it again. He allowed us to “play through” the fifth hole, and politely wished us well as he sat hunched over in his cart. We returned the pleasantries as we inwardly admonished ourselves for the petty troubles that sometimes bothered us.

    Golf is a combination of mental and physical abilities that challenge even the best players, and this humble man shamed both Beth and I with his determination to accomplish the most basic of tasks. We are improving due to help from friends (…thanks Bob) but hopefully we always will remember that it is just a game, and always be thankful for being alive, and outside, and healthy.