When life gives you divots…

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of playing a golf course I’d never played before. To be honest, I barely knew the golf course existed before last year. It’s nestled into a little community which I, also, barely knew existed before last year. Ah, the wonders of scenic routes to avoid traffic jams on I-25.

At any rate, this golf course is gorgeous! I stepped out of my car, and immediately my nose filled with the smells of mountain forests and cedar chips. The first tee looks out over an expanse of the Colorado prairies, and, 440 yards in the distance, over a scenic little pond lined with cattails, sits the green, lurking in shadows and daring you to think about reaching it in two shots. While watching the flight of my tee shot on the 11th, a deer pranced across the fairway –; I suppose, realizing that the safest place on the golf course was in a direct line between me and my target.

It was exhilarating! The problem was, as is often the case when I am in nature, I was actually there to play golf. And I had some difficulty with that part of it. See, every time I was a little off line, I would end up with a shot where my ball was sitting in a weird hole, or the ground underneath it was either much harder or much softer than the ground around it, making it very difficult to play good shots. As beautiful as the course was, it was not in great condition, and that was frustrating.

Now, let me be clear: the problems with this round of golf were much more because of the condition of my golf swing than they were the condition of the course. Nobody knows better than I do the adage that you don’t have to worry about your lie when you’re on the green. Nonetheless, it was disappointing that such a beautiful setting did not produce a better golf experience.

And that got me thinking about analogous situations in everyday life. Some of the obvious ones are material: a beautiful car with a lemon engine; the slickest new cell phone with all the bells and whistles attached to a terrible network; or an impressive home built on, I don’t know, Indian burial grounds or something.

But the obvious situations aren’t really the meaningful ones. We live in “the land of opportunity,” but a significant portion of the population is stuck in a cycle of desperation and poverty that points to very little opportunity. We have Emancipation and Civil Rights, but, every day, people in this country visit violence upon their fellow citizens for no better reason than the color of their skin. And we have the all-time greatest quarterback still running the show, but he’s having a hard time throwing the ball more than 20 yards accurately.

How many of our churches are beautiful, magnificent structures, with a cold mission and little outreach into the community?

How many of our politicians run slick campaigns with the best consultants, but can’t articulate a vision for America because they don’t believe in anything other than winning elections?

We’ve gotten pretty good, as a society, at taking the amazing scenery provided by our forefathers and resting on our laurels without doing the hard work of mowing the lawn evenly and raking the sand traps and maintaining the conditions of operation for optimal user experience. I’m no different –; you’d know that if you ever looked inside my desk drawers.

But, if latter-day America has become difficult –; too partisan, too divided –; maybe it’s because we’re all waiting for someone to fix the divots for us.

Here’s a news flash: America, like golf, insists that you play it where it lies, and clean up the course after yourself.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of playing a golf course I’d never played before. To be honest, I barely knew the golf course existed before last year. It’s nestled into a little community which I, also, barely knew existed before last year. Ah, the wonders of scenic routes to avoid traffic jams on I-25.

At any rate, this golf course is gorgeous! I stepped out of my car, and immediately my nose filled with the smells of mountain forests and cedar chips. The first tee looks out over an expanse of the Colorado prairies, and, 440 yards in the distance, over a scenic little pond lined with cattails, sits the green, lurking in shadows and daring you to think about reaching it in two shots. While watching the flight of my tee shot on the 11th, a deer pranced across the fairway –; I suppose, realizing that the safest place on the golf course was in a direct line between me and my target.

It was exhilarating! The problem was, as is often the case when I am in nature, I was actually there to play golf. And I had some difficulty with that part of it. See, every time I was a little off line, I would end up with a shot where my ball was sitting in a weird hole, or the ground underneath it was either much harder or much softer than the ground around it, making it very difficult to play good shots. As beautiful as the course was, it was not in great condition, and that was frustrating.

Now, let me be clear: the problems with this round of golf were much more because of the condition of my golf swing than they were the condition of the course. Nobody knows better than I do the adage that you don’t have to worry about your lie when you’re on the green. Nonetheless, it was disappointing that such a beautiful setting did not produce a better golf experience.

And that got me thinking about analogous situations in everyday life. Some of the obvious ones are material: a beautiful car with a lemon engine; the slickest new cell phone with all the bells and whistles attached to a terrible network; or an impressive home built on, I don’t know, Indian burial grounds or something.

But the obvious situations aren’t really the meaningful ones. We live in “the land of opportunity,” but a significant portion of the population is stuck in a cycle of desperation and poverty that points to very little opportunity. We have Emancipation and Civil Rights, but, every day, people in this country visit violence upon their fellow citizens for no better reason than the color of their skin. And we have the all-time greatest quarterback still running the show, but he’s having a hard time throwing the ball more than 20 yards accurately.

How many of our churches are beautiful, magnificent structures, with a cold mission and little outreach into the community?

How many of our politicians run slick campaigns with the best consultants, but can’t articulate a vision for America because they don’t believe in anything other than winning elections?

We’ve gotten pretty good, as a society, at taking the amazing scenery provided by our forefathers and resting on our laurels without doing the hard work of mowing the lawn evenly and raking the sand traps and maintaining the conditions of operation for optimal user experience. I’m no different –; you’d know that if you ever looked inside my desk drawers.

But, if latter-day America has become difficult –; too partisan, too divided –; maybe it’s because we’re all waiting for someone to fix the divots for us.

Here’s a news flash: America, like golf, insists that you play it where it lies, and clean up the course after yourself.

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