Ron Swanson – Life’s Elixir

Ron Swanson

Golf, to me, is like an elixir of life. Sometimes it is sweet, sometimes it is bitter; but, I always am glad to have partaken of it. Why is it that even a bad round is not “a good walk spoiled”? It’s because almost 20 years ago I made a decision to let myself enjoy the sport.
I used to play in my younger days and had given up the game because of a bad back and a general lack of ability. My nature is to become compulsive about becoming good at something that I take up and golf beat me up so much mentally as well as physically that it was easy to walk away from. Then after about a ten year hiatus, my brother got me to play again. This time I consciously decided to just enjoy the time outdoors and occasionally beat the guys I played with. This was possible because they played every bit as badly as I did. In fact, we formed “The Bad Golfers Association” and every round since 1995 is stored in the massive super computer in the hallowed halls of the BGA Central Office. With the aid of this information we never let any of us forget a bad shot or a “Monumental Achievement.” Whenever you are feeling badly about your golf game feel free to visit our website and, after perusing how badly this game can be played, I am sure it will allow you to feel much better about your golf game.

BGA Floundering Fathers

The point of this preamble is that there has not been a single round in the more than 1000 rounds we have recorded that we have not had a good laugh and more fun than should be allowed. There is no room for being thin-skinned and if you are not being tweaked then it is only because we don’t know you well enough, yet. Despite all of this verbal abuse, we all look forward to our weekly twilight round at Mt. Pleasant and block our calendars. Work, family, and other important events have to take a back seat one night a week from March through October (our season lasts as long as daylight savings time lasts).
This one round of golf gives me something to look forward to each week, very much like working out at Brick Bodies has done for me during the last eight months or so. I got into a routine and three or four nights a week after work I would workout for about an hour or so. I enjoyed myself and as a side benefit I would often go to get an “adult beverage” at home and before I could put it together I would usually decide that plain water would suit me better. Lately, unlike with golf, I have been finding it more difficult to get to the gym as often as I want, and I notice that I am again having that glass or two of wine in the evening. As a result I am not feeling as energetic as I have become used to. Admittedly, I am doing more work outdoors, as Mrs. Commish has me working more in her gardens, than I would prefer, but I really think that it is my problem in not continuing to make working out as high a priority as it used to be.
Does this sound familiar? Are you going to let something become an acceptable excuse today for not going to your workout? If you take one piece of advice from The Commish then let it be this…if you accept the excuse as being good enough to skip your workout, at least don’t accept that you are really too busy to workout. The time is there, we just have to apportion it properly.
Oh yeah, if you are going to accept a second piece of advice from me than check out our BGA blog where I ponder the unponderable. Here’s a link to one of my favorite ones titled “Walk Ons and Pago Pa.”