More Golf

Welp. Been out three times now. It's good. I'm a bit... frustrated... that I can't golf where my dad and I always did. The courses that I'm golfing are a bit easier than Bon Vivant was, and my scores have shown that. I golfed 18 today in 25 mph winds and I shot a scrambling 90; bogey golf. I was all over the place, but the course was so open and short that it didn't hurt so much. I'm really looking forward to playing with the family over the fourth of July, and friends when ever they're available.

Golf

At the age of 14 I started viewing myself as an athlete. This was the first year that I was successful at a sport; I was undefeated in the 60, 100, and 200 yard dash. I soon picked up Volleyball and Football and was successful in those as well. I'm sure that my dad had a mix of pride in what I was accomplishing and frustration that his son has surpassed him at those sports... which explains why he continued to push me to golf with him. :)

I wrote off my ineptitude on the golf course, saying that it was an old man's sport, but I continued to go out with dad several times a summer. The obstacles are obvious. As a young man I lacked the patience and the concentration for the sport. In every other sport I was taught to lead with my hips and that the more muscle I used the better my results would be. Neither was true in golf.

It wasn't until the summer after my senior year in college that I began to make any real progress in my dad's sport. I took a summer golf class, read some books, but more importantly I played almost weekly with my dad. Something in me slowed down and began to notice the beauty of the game. It was more than something to be conquered, it was something to be enjoyed. It's played on some of the most beautiful land available, at a fairly relaxed pace, and it brings people together. We got in about three good summers of golf before we found out about dad's tumor. I never even came close to beating him. Last year, at the peak of my dad's cancer, I didn't even touch a club. I have his clubs now. I think it's time for me to pick them up.

Does It Make A Difference?

I like to think that I'm in the business of helping people. But can one person really help another?

Every day I pour myself into hurting teenagers. I do my best to offer what ever help I can. My clients struggle with problems ranging from anger management to severe depression; sometimes both at the same time. My job is to get them through their crisis so that they are stable enough to carry on with long term therapy. Normally this does not take more than the 90 days that the state gives us to work with them. But sometimes it takes much longer.

I got a call from a client that I worked with for over a year for one stretch, then on and off for another two years, tonight and she is struggling with the same things that we worked on for our three years working together. She has been arrested three times and is thinking about dropping out of school. Apparently we built up enough of a relationship during our time together that she is willing to call and talk to me even though she is no longer my client. (she called the answering services and asked to talk to me; she does not have my number) But a lot of good it's doing!

I suppose that it goes back to my last post. The whole "you can lead a horse to water" parable. I guess that I'm just frustrated that I spend my time pouring myself into my clients and I rarely see any progress. And more often than not when I do hear about their progress, it's to hear that they are still tripping over the same stumbling blocks.

Maybe I should view my job the same way I view my call from Christ. I'm called to love people, no matter what. That way I can unconditionally offer help with out that being tied to a motivation to see any change.

Thinking Deeply

I feel old. I know that I'm not. I hope that I haven't reached mid life yet. But sometimes my head switches into "this is what's wrong with the world" mode, which I associate with people with considerably more experience than myself. I'll try to post about my most recent "this is what's wrong with the world" thoughts later. I'm home for lunch and I don't have as much time as I would like. But this is something that those thoughts led me to.

Time is a freaking jerk.

It never stops and it rarely is kind. Sure. It provides experience for those who take advantage of it. But by the time you have the experience, you are already passed the place where it would have been really helpful to have it. So what do we do? We try to pass our experience along to those young enough to take advantage of it. But here's the thing: Experience cannot be passed along from one person to another. So the young will continue to make the mistakes, in order to learn and gain the experience, and the experienced will continue to look on in frustration, thinking "if only they had listened." I find this amusing and mildly frustrating at the same time. Probably because I really want to spare those who I care about the hardships that I had to deal with, but at the same time I'm old and I like to say "I told ya so."

Post

Lena and Richard both yelled at me for not being online any more, so here. HA!

So, I've been playing a lot of video games. Fallout 3 pretty much rocks out! I find it very easy to get lost in the Wasteland for hours at a time. Another enjoyable pass time, that's really the same pass time, would be killing zombies. Left 4 Dead for life. Really I don't view these as video games, but more as preparation for the not too distant future.

I'm sure that playing such video games makes me look like a huge dork in the minds of some of my readers, LENA, but I know there are those out there who understand. Even my loving wife likes killing zombies with me. So :-p

I apologize that I've been away for so long. Keep bugging me, so that I remember to get on and post.

Update

Man I suck at posting now that I can't from my phone. I need a job where I get to sit in front of a computer all day and do all the things that I want to do.

So My birthday was a couple of days ago. The big 31. Not much to report on that front. I'm a year older, had a pretty good birthday, and a few friends over. I enjoyed tacos and burritos and a really good cake. I got a new 42" TV for my birthday, but I got that the day after Christmas, which is my wife's birthday... so I kinda got a new TV for my wife's birthday.

Christmas was pretty nice. We didn't get to go to Florida like we were planning, plane tickets were just too expensive. So we spent it with my family and on our own, starting our own Christmas tradition; building a gingerbread house. Our house rocked out... but the funniest part was demolishing it a couple days later. We built it so well that a minature family could have lived in it.

I'll try to write more later about killing zombies and my tips on dominating in your fantasy football league.

More Effort

Ami and I just got new phones. Phones with out internet access. This means that it will take more effort for me to post. I will do my best to continue posting regularly.

If anyone needs my new number (which I will be texting to my call list over the next couple of days) send me an e-mail. Goodbye Sidekick 3. You were a good phone.