The Ice Man

As we sat around the dinner table my grandfather explained life as a boy. He would sell newspapers to make extra money and could not afford the five cents to take the bus back home. He would ride his bike in the cold, in the snow, in the rain, in the wind, and in the heat.

He explained how the ice man would come to the family home and sell a piece of ice for five cents . My grandmother chimed in, " We had to buy ice from the ice man too. Every one did. " It seemed like a light bulb went off in her mind as she looked at my cousins and I and said, " Your grandfather and I lived in the same town , at the same time, and our fathers had similar jobs , his father's maybe better than mine; yet he grew up poor and I did not. Or at least I never KNEW I was poor."

The same boiling water that softens potatoes hardens eggs. Your attitude and the attitude of those around you define your life, not your circumstances.

Keep Calm and Golf On

A golf swing is a series of corrected mistakes. - Carol Mann

I wanted to learn to play golf before my company's fundraiser. So I signed up for a " Get Golf Ready" workshop. I approached the clubhouse and met the others who would be in the class with me : several  middle aged women , a middle aged man , and two women in their seventies. The instructor Nicole approached us. She was a tall , slender woman wearing a purple polo and purple plaid capris. She smiled brightly as she introduced herself and spoke with excitement as she explained what was in store for us.

She told us that we must remember our golf game is not "broken" and that the most important thing  is to stop the tendency to immediately brush off errors without a focus on them . We must instead bring awareness to the areas that could be improved.

Everyone took out their golf bags and examined their clubs. Nicole taught us that the longer the shaft of the club, the less the loft , and the longer the distance.

We started with some stretches and knee raises to get our body loose. We then did a full swing warmup. We simulated a full swing but swung all the way through instead of stopping where you hit the ball.

Nicole has us pair up and threw golf balls to each other. Then we closed our eyes and repeated the exercise.  We still were able to throw the ball in the correct spot . Why? Because our focus was not on the ball instead but on the target we wanted it to reach.

We grabbed a 7 iron and stepped up to the stations Nicole had set up .We did a full swing again, this time making connection with a ball. After a few swings Nicole came up to me and asked me to step a little farther back from the tee, loosen my grip on the club, and relax my shoulders. I pulled the club back then swung forward in one fluid motion . The swing finished with the club up by my shoulder , my  back foot pointed forward, and my eyes looking out to where I hit the ball (my target) . Nicole taught us that the most important piece of equipment we could have in golf is our body.


After full swing we moved on to putting and chipping . Chipping is used when the ball has landed in the "rough" and you need the ball to be able to go over the fringe and back onto the green. We did a "flamingo drill" emphasizing the weight on the front left leg as we stood at the fringe and chipped.

After the ball landed on the green we pulled out our putters and did a ladder drill; hitting five balls and attempting to get them into a line. Then we closed our eyes and repeated the ladder drill, trying to determine before open our eyes where the ball landed in relation to the hole.

We finished with a drive in the golf carts out onto the course. We learned about "reading the hole" where a golfer surveys the dips and hills surrounding a hole to determine their strategy.


I took many swings during the workshop. Some I hit, some I missed. Some seemed like great shots but didn't go that far. Regardless of what happened, I had to  play the ball where it landed.  Nicole taught us that by seeing certain areas as opportunities instead of weaknesses that we were one step closer to par.