290 Yards

290 Yards

I normally take off at noon on Friday and play golf.  Last Friday I went to Old Colony Golf Course.  I have been thinking about joining there after 40 years of playing tennis and golf (tennis 20 years and golf 25 years) at the Country Club of Tuscaloosa.  They closed the Country Club of Tuscaloosa…  When I arrived at Old Colony Golf Course, I found there was an “A” Day golf tournament for ex “A”labama “A”thletes and I could not play golf.  I know, although I do not follow Alabama football, very much, several of the old time Alabama athletes who played for Alabama.  I have played golf with some of them and I have employed some of them.

When I could not play that day, I watched and talked with some “A”thletes.  The majority of them still have fairly pretentious bodies, and others have bodies more like mine, euphemistically called “portly.”   After eating a great big well done cheeseburger as I watched the athletes, young and somewhat “older” drive out to play golf, including some of my friends, I went to the golf club showing event at the same course.   There were various vendors there, Ping, Wilson, Callaway, Mizuno, and others of the big name club manufacturers.  One gets to try them out for free.  There were lots of young guys there in there 20’s and 30’s, and I in my 60’s (actually 67 years old) watched them.  The Ping booth had a computer type tablet thing that told about the young man who was hitting balls. He was little portly like me, but much younger, hitting balls with the Ping driver they were letting him test.  His good ones were called out by the man operating computer screen as something like 261 yards carry and 290 yards total.  I watched this exhibition and others hitting balls and just watched the people involved, evaluating what I was hearing and seeing.

I meditated upon the matter.  The meditation turned into what they call “active” contemplation, but did not reach the heights of passive contemplation… :):)  I am thinking now…

I started playing golf at the age of 42 years old at the Tuscaloosa Country Club, after playing tennis there for 20 years or so.   I “used to be” able to hit a wooden head driver up to 275 “total” yards and I just loved my one iron too, but these new modern clubs and younger people are just ridiculous.  I can still hit a my newer type, but 7 years old, Taylor Made metal driver up to 240 yards or so, total, but after watching and contemplating upon these matters, I decided on that Friday:

• I need to slack up on golf a bit.
• My back hurt just from watching these guys.
• I decided to go back to work and take a nap on my Coleman folding cot which I keep at work and try to use every day just a little bit.
• I need to concentrate on writing my book on St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. That might do more good than hitting golf balls a long way off into the sky.
• These young bucks probably do not know anything about St. Ignatius Spirituality.
• They need to know, and I need to rest my back and knees a while.

My wife, Wink, graciously typed up my notes.  While editing the draft, I noticed I do not have a conclusion to this matter… I think we should wait a bit, and see what happens..  In St. Ignatius Spirituality, one of the general principles is to never make a decision in times of Desolation.  One should only make decisions in times of Consolation.  Therefore, since a Conclusion is a decision, I have none to give at this time.  :):)

Grace & Peace,

John Cooper