Last night my family played Disc-Golf. Myself, my hubby, my 15 year-old-niece, my mother and my daddy. In the warm Georgia dusk. It was a really great family time together.
For those of you unfamiliar with Disc-Golf, here’s the basics. Each person has a specialized Frisbee Disc. Everyone starts at a “tee box” just like in regular golf, and you are aiming for a “pin” shaped like a basket hundreds of yards away, just like in regular golf. You throw as far as you can, walk to your disc, pick it up and throw again. Eventually you get within range of the “pin” and your final shot has to land in the basket. Just like in golf, there are 18 of these “holes” with all kinds of different terrain to negotiate to get through it. Score is kept the same way as it is in regular golf: there is an acceptable score (called PAR) that you are trying to reach or do better than and the person at the end of the day with the lowest score wins.
It’s a great activity and you can find Disc Golf courses all over the country. however you do not need an actual official course to play. You can play using trees or other objects as targets on your own property. It’s a great way to get out and walk without getting bored.
Martin’s family has always been into Disc Golf, and now recently my family has really gotten into it. It helps that my niece picked it up really fast and is doing splendidly at it. So I’m playing more than I have in years, and last night I found myself falling into a fairly typical mental trap.
If my first shot has me lined up where I’m going to have to get around a major obstacle to get to the basket, I get nervous about hitting the obstacle and looking dumb. If there is water any where near where I’m supposed to throw I’m almost guaranteed to lose a disc to the water hazard.
And heaven help me if there is a tree in my way.
My family all start shouting”encouragement” phrased like this
“Aim for the tree! You’re certain to miss it”
they mean well, certainly, and we all laugh as I say to myself
“Right. Okay, aim for the tree”
I throw, I miss the tree and land a nice shot.
Great!
right?
Well not so much. Think about it. What have I just taught myself? Have I taught myself that I can go around an obstacle? or that I can definitely miss whatever I aim at?
and what does that do to me when it’s time to “putt” on the final shot into the basket….you know, the one object I’m SUPPOSED to hit?
How often in life do we do this to ourselves?
just something to think about.
stream of continuousness 
Oh. First I was laughing at the “encouragement” from your family about aiming at the tree so you’ll miss it. Then you went and got all deep on me with a rather profound thought.
Yeah.
That IS something to think about.
And I’m thinking!
I guess I’ve been paying attention to stuff like this more since we are just six months or less from having a child to raise. I’m more and more worried about the UNINTENTIONAL things we end up teaching our kids. I figure I better think about this stuff NOW, cause once I stop getting sleep I’ll be on auto pilot, so I’d better do all my “deep thunken” NOW.
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