Today we played our last round of golf for the season. In so many ways it was just like any other round this year, yet it was very different.
Like so many other times this year, the weather was wet and threatening when we teed off. Unlike most other rounds, I striped my opening tee shot straight down the middle.
Like so many other rounds my score was not what I wanted it to be. Unlike other rounds, I didn’t really care.
Like too many other rounds when the scores were totaled I bought the beer. Unlike other rounds I didn’t go to the nineteenth hole so I paid my tab in the parking lot.
Unlike other rounds this year, I didn’t sleep well last. A chest cold has been dogging me since last week and last night I was up most of the night with a hacking cough. I used this as my excuse for not going to the bar for a couple of cold ones. In a way it was true, too
Yesterday I got my biopsy results back. Unlike other days, today I became a cancer patient and having another poor round of golf didn’t seem as important as it used to be.
Yesterday is gone. Today I feel numb. Tomorrow I start on the road to becoming a cancer survivor. Hopefully, next year when I have a poor round of golf it will once again make me pissed off.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Wall of Good Deeds
Makai, my Anatolian Shepherd, and I were taking our morning walk and Fall was announcing its presence. Leaves were beginning to accumulate in and around our woods and there was just a bit of a “nip” in the air. Since Terrible Tim, a red “Ori-Per”(half Oriental Shorthair and half Persian), chooses to walk with us, too, I looked back up the lane to make sure he was coming along. No Tim, but then I had to smile because he was plodding along as usual but his coloration blended so perfectly with the fallen leaves that he practically was invisible. As Mak stopped to leave his pee-mail message on a tree that some buck had previously PM’d on (PM... that’s pee-mail for the not so swift that are reading this, you know who you are), Timmy caught up with us and the three of us walked down the lane and out onto the road.
Most mornings I keep a wary eye peeled for cars so that when one approaches I can pick up Timmy and hold him until it passes (just so Tim can’t do his “squirrel” imitation and get squashed). By now most of the drivers look for the three of us and wave and smile at the old man holding a cat and hanging onto a huge dog that looks like a yellow lab on steroids. Thankfully, Tim no longer scratches me to get away; but, this morning we were alone, just the three of us… and my thoughts.
Looking up at the sky as daylight was breaking through the cloud cover, I saw leaves lazily drifting down from the old stand trees that line our country road. One leaf would float gently down, back and forth, left to right, as another fell more swiftly making a pleasing and very calming tableau. In fact, I began to feel like I was in a movie, a cartoon actually, as life was imitating art and I could envision a young Bambi watching nature and all its wonders.
“THWACK!!!”
I literally could see the words and accompanying stars surround my head as Mother Nature scored a direct hit with an acorn hurled from some 60 feet above. So much for the pastoral setting and I began to notice that “my” acorn was not a single shot, they were falling as fast as rain drops so I left my personal movie and continued on my walk.
“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
Yesterday I had a conversation with a client where they had done something nice for someone and instead of being thanked they were being besieged by requests to do even more for this person. Where a simple “Thank You,” would have been appreciated, the request to do more was not. Hence our conversation ended with me reminding her that, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
This was what I was thinking about after escaping from the acorn barrage and then I had another thought. Once again I could see the light bulb coming on above my head as I was back in cartoon mode. Why not do something that recognized some of the nice things I do for others? Luckily I refined this initial thought somewhat and here is the final product of Mak’s and my walk this morning…The Wall of Good Deeds.
I recently completed construction of a dry stone retaining wall. Thirtysome years ago I also completed construction of this same wall but it was not a dry wall. Gravity and my lack of experience finally brought it down last winter. This new wall is built like a castle, about 7-feet high and back-filled with rubble and rock. I expect it to last longer than I will and, as I told my daughter (Gwaltney) and her husband (TBND…”That Boy Next Door”), it’s their problem 30 years from now, not mine.
Anyway, I have this beautiful wall and I have decided that anyone who has done a good deed for another is invited to sign the wall as recognition of their being “nice.” If you visit us and feel that you have done something nice for someone other then yourself, then you are invited and encouraged to sign the “Wall of Good Deeds.” It’s graffiti with a purpose and best of all, you decide if you are worthy of being enshrined forever on The Wall of Good Deeds.
I cannot call it just “The Wall” because, to me, The Wall has only one meaning, The Vietnam Memorial, and my wall is neither as important nor emotionally powerful as “The Wall” but the criteria for being on my wall is easier to meet because you decide if you are worthy. Much easier than being MIA or KIA. For instance, I signed the first rock because Mrs. Commish had to work late and I made dinner for her. A chuck roast with rosemary from our garden, herb and garlic rigatoni, and fresh-picked stringbeans, also from our garden. Then while we ate I let her choose the program to watch as I switched off Monday Night Football. I felt that was deserving of recognition. Don’t you?
I do have to admit that I left the dishes for Mrs. Commish and after we finished I did flip back to MNF and that did chase her upstairs. Hey, football deserves to be watched on the 54” screen, doesn’t it? And, unless she reads this, she doesn’t know that I used her best nail polish to sign “my rock.” Hey, it’s about “good deeds” not perfection.
Because I do think “The Wall of Good Deeds” is a pretty good idea, I will be starting an e-Wall soon on Facebook so that those of you who will never be able to sign the real “brick and mortar and rock and rubble” wall can be recognized, too. It is time to put an end to that old saying and instead pat ourselves on the back for the little unrecognized things that we do from time to time.
P.S. Here is the link to The Wall of Good Deeds (TWGD) so that you can post a pat on the back to yourself or someone else.
If your name appears on TWGD then you have made life a little bit better for someone else. Congratulations for a job well done.
Most mornings I keep a wary eye peeled for cars so that when one approaches I can pick up Timmy and hold him until it passes (just so Tim can’t do his “squirrel” imitation and get squashed). By now most of the drivers look for the three of us and wave and smile at the old man holding a cat and hanging onto a huge dog that looks like a yellow lab on steroids. Thankfully, Tim no longer scratches me to get away; but, this morning we were alone, just the three of us… and my thoughts.
Looking up at the sky as daylight was breaking through the cloud cover, I saw leaves lazily drifting down from the old stand trees that line our country road. One leaf would float gently down, back and forth, left to right, as another fell more swiftly making a pleasing and very calming tableau. In fact, I began to feel like I was in a movie, a cartoon actually, as life was imitating art and I could envision a young Bambi watching nature and all its wonders.
“THWACK!!!”
I literally could see the words and accompanying stars surround my head as Mother Nature scored a direct hit with an acorn hurled from some 60 feet above. So much for the pastoral setting and I began to notice that “my” acorn was not a single shot, they were falling as fast as rain drops so I left my personal movie and continued on my walk.
“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
Yesterday I had a conversation with a client where they had done something nice for someone and instead of being thanked they were being besieged by requests to do even more for this person. Where a simple “Thank You,” would have been appreciated, the request to do more was not. Hence our conversation ended with me reminding her that, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
This was what I was thinking about after escaping from the acorn barrage and then I had another thought. Once again I could see the light bulb coming on above my head as I was back in cartoon mode. Why not do something that recognized some of the nice things I do for others? Luckily I refined this initial thought somewhat and here is the final product of Mak’s and my walk this morning…The Wall of Good Deeds.
I recently completed construction of a dry stone retaining wall. Thirtysome years ago I also completed construction of this same wall but it was not a dry wall. Gravity and my lack of experience finally brought it down last winter. This new wall is built like a castle, about 7-feet high and back-filled with rubble and rock. I expect it to last longer than I will and, as I told my daughter (Gwaltney) and her husband (TBND…”That Boy Next Door”), it’s their problem 30 years from now, not mine.
Anyway, I have this beautiful wall and I have decided that anyone who has done a good deed for another is invited to sign the wall as recognition of their being “nice.” If you visit us and feel that you have done something nice for someone other then yourself, then you are invited and encouraged to sign the “Wall of Good Deeds.” It’s graffiti with a purpose and best of all, you decide if you are worthy of being enshrined forever on The Wall of Good Deeds.
I cannot call it just “The Wall” because, to me, The Wall has only one meaning, The Vietnam Memorial, and my wall is neither as important nor emotionally powerful as “The Wall” but the criteria for being on my wall is easier to meet because you decide if you are worthy. Much easier than being MIA or KIA. For instance, I signed the first rock because Mrs. Commish had to work late and I made dinner for her. A chuck roast with rosemary from our garden, herb and garlic rigatoni, and fresh-picked stringbeans, also from our garden. Then while we ate I let her choose the program to watch as I switched off Monday Night Football. I felt that was deserving of recognition. Don’t you?
I do have to admit that I left the dishes for Mrs. Commish and after we finished I did flip back to MNF and that did chase her upstairs. Hey, football deserves to be watched on the 54” screen, doesn’t it? And, unless she reads this, she doesn’t know that I used her best nail polish to sign “my rock.” Hey, it’s about “good deeds” not perfection.
Because I do think “The Wall of Good Deeds” is a pretty good idea, I will be starting an e-Wall soon on Facebook so that those of you who will never be able to sign the real “brick and mortar and rock and rubble” wall can be recognized, too. It is time to put an end to that old saying and instead pat ourselves on the back for the little unrecognized things that we do from time to time.
P.S. Here is the link to The Wall of Good Deeds (TWGD) so that you can post a pat on the back to yourself or someone else.
If your name appears on TWGD then you have made life a little bit better for someone else. Congratulations for a job well done.
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