Success vs. Joy

 

- II -

The Amazing Lightness of Joy

 

I hit the balls as I saw them, time and time again, and then some more, concentrating not simply on what might have been out of kilter with my technique but also on what was inherently right. I was also fortunate that no one kept track of the score, least of all me. At the age of 13, I became hopelessly and utterly addicted to an experience that I could not verbalize at that time. But it certainly didn’t incorporate counting the points as the balls fell into the pockets.

 

Many years later, when I first took up that baffling yet beguiling Scottish export known as golf, I was practicing down at the driving range when I struck one particular ball that felt like a feather. That little white sphere became airborne not with the force of my body but with a perfect connection of club to ball. Such a connection is the culmination of perfect alignment, rhythm, and timing and is called the sweet spot.

 

An accomplished player in virtually any sport and certainly in any ball sport will have experienced the addiction of the sweet spot. And it was this sweet spot that I felt as a 13-year-old, after only a few months of exposure to my game.

 

 

 

Chapter I :: Chapter III