Morning Friend,"We can't all play a winning game, someone is sure to lose.But we can play so that our name, no one may dare accuse.For when the Master Referee, scores against our name,It won't be whether we won or lost,but how we played the game."GRANTLAND RICE (1880-1954)Now HERE's a dandy little poetic gem to start your week, ( and the rest of your life?), off on the right foot.I may not have it exactly right word for word, but I've written it precisely how I memorized it as a child.No, it wasn't a school assignment but rather something my young mind absorbed on its' own after hearing it recited several hundred times by my "step-grandfather".Good old Henry Steinhauer; a brilliant man, raucous spoon and accordion player and Master Carpenter, would wax poetically, eloquently and drunkenly at the kitchen table for hours on end to an audience of me ; a rapt youngster too polite and not wily enough to beg his leave.As drunks are apt to do, he'd forget that he'd told me the poem a hundred times previously, so he'd tell it every time with the same passion and gusto as if he himself had just heard it and was passing it on for the first time.And just as children are apt to do, I was able to see beyond the repetitive ramblings of this tragic gent who ultimately and literally "drank his life away", and committed this significant sporting metaphor to memory, and subsequently, into practice.Because, drunk or sober...rich or poor....young or old...we are ALL playing this remarkably complicated, decidedly difficult, extraordinarily frustrating, and infinitely satisfying "Game of Life".Unlike traditional games and sports where winning is empirically measured with a system of scoring, Life's winners and losers are not as easily identifiable. ( no ticker-tape parades for good samaritans I'm afraid)Unlike the "win at all costs" mentality of sports, where the rules of the game are often skirted, breached and sometimes ignored for Victory's sake, those who would sacrifice honor and hard work for deception and half-heartedness in Life's arena, never really "Win" anything. ( if you're "proud" of something you STOLE, then you just might be a sociopath my friend???)Unlike an athlete whose great challenge lies within the alotted periods or quarters of "playing time", our game lasts every waking minute of our lifetime.As we surely know, within that game are MANY... "wins" and "losses".The course of one person's average hectic day can sometimes FILL a newspaper sportspage with "results'.....- Forgot to set alarm 1.....Tim 0- Burned toast 2.....Tim 0- Flat tire 1....bicyle pump 1- Angry boss 4....contrite Tim 5- Miserable co-worker 1...Jovial Tim 10- Pretty co-worker 10...Smilin' Tim 11- Forgotten lunch 6...Cafeteria 2- Ptomaine 15....Tim 0- Layoff notices 27...Tim 1- Pretty co-worker's goodbye 5...Tim 5- Options 99...Tim 100- Sober 1....Drunk 0.....- Opportunity 1...Response 1....When you think about the never ending stream of wins and losses, one gets a better appreciation of the importance of HOW we play as opposed to the outcome, because losses are inevitable as they are plentiful in these existential Olympics.We can "play our heart out" and still lose just as easily as we sometimes win accidentally.We can go on losing streaks that seem unjust and which defy our every effort to turn the tide.We can be tempted to "cheat" for the sake of a small taste of success.We can say "to heck with winning", LOSE ourself in an addiction of some sort and forsake the game altogether!?We are ALL going to "lose" many times and in many ways, sometimes devastatingly and sometimes not so.But the "Master Referee" is not tallying up a Win/Loss column.The "Hall of Fame" is home to those played with grace and style, courage and perseverance, strength and valor, humility and forgiveness; those who took a few on the chin, learned from their mistakes and played for the LOVE of the GAME.I am largely grateful to Henry Steinhauer; who I would suggest may be found in the "Low-German Folksingers" section of "the Hall", for his wisdom and a hint perhaps of his boisterousness?This particular lesson has helped me understand the years where I had begun losing my own love of life; that I lost due to alcoholism.I had been "playing through an injury".Have a good game today!Love tImMy:/
Laugh as much as you breathe...
Love as long as you live ( onside)
