Puffs

I didn’t plan on writing about golf this week, but I played in the “Over 50” golf tournament Sunday at the Lawrence Country Club. That provided the incentive for some of the following observations:

* I probably don’t take the game seriously enough as I suspect most people that are as inept at the game as I am would have quit long ago. But I do enjoy getting out and playing.

* I played with some men who are probably among the better golfers at the Lawrence Golf Club and I learned a lot from them. One of the things I learned was not to throw my club after a particularly bad hit. No, I don’t actually throw the club, I just let if fall from my hands after the swing, but it never endangers the safety of anyone. Even though I get plenty of ‘bad’ hits, I don’t always do that, but I guess it is unacceptable behavior on the golf course.

* Even though I got a few good drives (at least what I thought were good) off the tee box, I learned a little humility as I watch them hit the ball much, much further, time after time after time.

* It seems the biggest ‘hazard’ on the Lawrence Golf Course has historically been the “Rough.” However, the rough had been cut and the hay removed, so there was little hazard provided on this round of play. Our group spent little time on that area of the course, but on one occasion we came up with a golf ball entitled “Nelson Community Club.” Near the end of the 18 holes of golf and after I sacrificed several golf balls to the other major hazard on the course (the pond), I tried that golf ball someone from Nelson left on the course. It didn’t work any better than my old golf balls.

* Those long hits I admired by my golfing partners for the day . . . well . . . occasionally would go off track as well.

* However, they (whoever they are) say that one good hit a person gets during a round of play is what keeps them coming back. I actually got one of them on the first round of play Sunday. Those familiar with the Lawrence Course knows the number two hole is short and one of the holes where most all of the “hole in one” shots are made. It is one of the holes usually used for a “Flag Prize” during most tournaments. A prize is given for the person closest to the hole on their tee shot. Guess what, I ended up putting my first tee shot on the green and put my name down as being the first person closest to the pin. And . . . after all the players had their chance to record their name, my remained as the person closest to the pin on the tee shot on number 2 hole . . . for that day at least. I think that was the shot that will help me coming back again, and it won me a set of three brand new golf balls. (Let’s see, I won’t count the cost of the tournament entry fee against the golf balls . . . they were still free.)

* Life is good.

A O

Change is constant in most all things in the world. Except for “Right and Wrong” we should realize not everything is going to remain as we now know it. That includes the use of the English language. We recognize “Old English” as something different than what we now use for a reason.

Many years ago I came across a poll being taken. I don’t remember who was conducting the poll, or for what purpose. However, I did write down a few notes concerning that poll and its use of our language. For those of us on the bottom rung of our language usage skills, I point out a few words or phrases I wondered about:

* “Instructional objectives” - couldn’t they just use the word “goals” so we knew what you meant?

* “Social – economic changes in society” – where else other than in society are you going to have such changes.

* “Learning-to-learn” – could you have used “teach them how to study”?

* “A vision that is clear enough that someone could use it to describe what the school would look like in five years.” – (Uh ?)

The use of our language is vital to the function of society. Most people know this without even thinking about it. However, some people put a great deal of thought into it and come up with new words and phrases that suit themselves not especially everyone else. My two favorite examples are:

#1: “Women’s Health”: This has been around ever since the beginning of the ‘abortion era’, or getting close to 50 years ago now. What is healthy about having a baby torn out of a women’s body I’ll never know. The term was used to hope that people would come to accept abortions a something good for women. That seemed to work for some time, but lately it seems that more and more people realize abortions always result in the death of a human and sometimes more than one person, and does enormous damage to the mental health of the woman.

#2: “For the people”: This little three word phrase comes to us from the new federal administration that took office in 2021. It is used to convince us that the federal government should take over the conduct of our election system. Somehow they want to convince us that their conduct of elections would be better than what we have now.

This comes in spite that the U. S. Constitution gives the states the responsibility to conduct the elections.

The federal government has done a great many things correctly over the years. However, they have also made a mess of a great deal of things.

I cannot vision an election conducted by the federal government as anything but a problem waiting to happen.

Language . . . you gotta love it, but be careful of its use.

A O