Covid '19 Summer Tour!

2020 hasn’t proven itself to be a particularly good year thus far - it fact, it’s been somewhere between horrendous and horrifying. I suppose though that 2020 is thankful that the corona virus got an early jump on winter so that ‘19 (and not itself) is forever inked in infamy. And many of us don’t really know what to do with this year, being either unaccustomed to, or sheltered from, widespread malice. Do we throw our hands up in the air and give up? Yes. Do we resist the downward trends and focus on the positive? Also yes. Do we exist in a fog of uncertainty and wander from day to day with some trepidation? Again, yes. Because it is not just the awfulness of this virus that we face but an entire wave of unrest that may or may not have a causal relation to Covid ‘19. These are difficult times at best, and desperate times at worst. In a few words: things suck.

So…should we, can we, still have “fun”? Are laughter, mirth, and joviality unseemly when juxtaposed against suffering? I don’t know. Maybe. Perhaps this is the last summer (for a while) to be joyful; or perhaps it’s simply a continuation of life as we know it. Yet to be determined. My belief is that despite our impatience with misfortune, it is here to stay for a bit. We can’t simply be “over it” any more than we can be “over” the weather - it will rain when it rains, the sun will shine when it shines - we have no say in the matter. Conversely, everything each one of us does can profoundly affect the life of another - the connection between humans has never seemed more apparent than now. Certainly it seems as though we are approaching the end of some chapter where all the events of our pages must be reconciled in the last few paragraphs.

And golf. In many respects, it is just a game of little or no consequence within the arc of our story. But in another fashion it can be an opportunity for reflection. There’s far more inaction than action in golf - brief moments of concentration and effort enveloped by the long walks between points a and b. There is ample time to talk, to think, to connect with one another and oneself…and for some of us the rare opportunity to just be outside with nothing to “do”. In other years, I think I could be accused of attributing too much depth to just a game, but these days…walking upright with the wind in our face and a friend at our side is a gift not to be trifled with.