The Unknown Comic (for those too young to remember)
When Pat wrote about trying her hand at drawing, she said "... since my artistic skill extended pretty much only to the use of fabric."
I commented:
I commented:
"Um, I don't think so. I'd say there are probably several directions you haven't explored, where you have unfathomed ability. Maybe you're a prodigy at something you just haven't tried yet! (Omigosh, maybe I am too! I'm going off to visit this Danny Glover.....)"
[Note: Okay, leave it to a bunch of nitpicking perfectionist quilters to point out my flub--apologies to Danny Gregory--but can I just tell you that when I saw Beth's joke about Danny DiVito and Deb's remark about "Jane," I still didn't see my error? Now you see the handicap under which I work….. C'mon, it was at least a Danny G, which is closer than I get to my kids' names sometimes..... Now that I think about it, I love Danny Glover. Maybe we could list Danny's We Love? But I digress, as usual.]
Pat replied with a private email:
"Wouldn't that be something? To discover at 55 I'm a prodigy at something—think of the time I'd have wasted!! Oh well, better late than never. This morning I drew my left foot!
Epilogue
Hmmmm, The Unknown Prodigy….
I'm the least athletic person you ever saw. I never break a sweat unless it's a hot flash. When my husband and I married, I was 39 and he was 49. He was a tennis player and I hated tennis (besides, his deceased wife had played tennis and I wanted to create our own activities). We went to San Francisco/Napa-Sonoma/Monterey for our honeymoon and saw all those gorgeous golf courses.
I mused aloud that if one played golf, there would always be a great reason to visit some beautiful places (and travel is our mania). Before long he took up golf.
Soon I took it up, and you know what? At age 40 I learned I am an excellent golfer!!! (That alone tells you golf is a game, not a sport.) I even won a trophy the first year I played. I fell into obsessive love with the game (mostly because I was good and that was a totally new experience). But, alas, I was forced back to full-time work when the kids needed college money (the nerve!), and my game deteriorated to the point that I was frustrated and not enjoying this thing I loved so much. So I put the clubs on the shelf, so to speak, and I fantasize that someday I will be able to put down my burdens and go back to the course.
But the funniest part of the whole story was learning at age 40 I had a talent I never knew I had!
[Note: Okay, leave it to a bunch of nitpicking perfectionist quilters to point out my flub--apologies to Danny Gregory--but can I just tell you that when I saw Beth's joke about Danny DiVito and Deb's remark about "Jane," I still didn't see my error? Now you see the handicap under which I work….. C'mon, it was at least a Danny G, which is closer than I get to my kids' names sometimes..... Now that I think about it, I love Danny Glover. Maybe we could list Danny's We Love? But I digress, as usual.]
Pat replied with a private email:
"Wouldn't that be something? To discover at 55 I'm a prodigy at something—think of the time I'd have wasted!! Oh well, better late than never. This morning I drew my left foot!
Epilogue
Hmmmm, The Unknown Prodigy….
I'm the least athletic person you ever saw. I never break a sweat unless it's a hot flash. When my husband and I married, I was 39 and he was 49. He was a tennis player and I hated tennis (besides, his deceased wife had played tennis and I wanted to create our own activities). We went to San Francisco/Napa-Sonoma/Monterey for our honeymoon and saw all those gorgeous golf courses.
I mused aloud that if one played golf, there would always be a great reason to visit some beautiful places (and travel is our mania). Before long he took up golf.
Soon I took it up, and you know what? At age 40 I learned I am an excellent golfer!!! (That alone tells you golf is a game, not a sport.) I even won a trophy the first year I played. I fell into obsessive love with the game (mostly because I was good and that was a totally new experience). But, alas, I was forced back to full-time work when the kids needed college money (the nerve!), and my game deteriorated to the point that I was frustrated and not enjoying this thing I loved so much. So I put the clubs on the shelf, so to speak, and I fantasize that someday I will be able to put down my burdens and go back to the course.
But the funniest part of the whole story was learning at age 40 I had a talent I never knew I had!
I'm going to think up a new risk or two. How 'bout you?
5 comments:
I love golf, too! I'm no prodigy, not by a long stretch, I've yet to break 100 (I've come close), but I don't care. I just love to be out there on the course, in the beautiful scenery.
My husband lost interest in golf this--oops--last year, so I'm going to have to go it alone. I haven't played for a year so it will be a test. But I miss it!
I tried golf once.... it wasn't pretty!
Well, Cathy, you just never know. I had tried it in my 20's and thought it was one dumb game! When I tried it again 20 years later, like Rian, one of the things I loved was just being outside in beautiful surroundings. Good for you, Rian, to hang with it. Now I think it's a lovely game.
In a way, golf reminds me of quilting: neither of them make much sense. There's a joke about golf being the way to spoil a perfectly good walk. Picking up a little ball and hitting it with a stick, and picking up the same ball and hitting it again, ad infinitum. Then there's the joke about quilting--taking perfectly good fabric and cutting it into little pieces, just to sew it all back together again, also ad infinitum. But both can be so infuriating AND so satisfying.
Wes is hounding me to learn to play golf. This may be the year I am receptive to his idea.
BTW, aren't your kids grown and college paid for? why are you still working?
With girls it never ends. There are weddings. And law school (which I'm not paying for but I helped her some while she was there). And grandbabies. Just as I thought the end was in sight, Daughter #1 looks like she has wedding bells in her near future. It won't be much but I want to offer some sort of celebration, when he realizes he should ask her and she realizes she should tell him yes. I'm generous to my kids but they're hard-working and no one ever gave me much help, so it's called compensating.
Then there's my sewing addiction. I'm getting my retirement ducks in a row over the next 2-4 years. I'm not asking a "frugal" husband for an allowance at my age, nor explaining what I spend, so I'll probably always work a couple of days a week. When that happens, I will probably resume golf--but who know how I'll play at 60?
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