Hey fans, it’s that time of year when we talk about a nation-wide sport that favors the strong and strikes fear into the hearts of the weak. No, not the NFL playoffs… I’m talking about tetherball, the classic contest of physical agility and hand-eye coordination. I just watched the scene at the end of Napoleon Dynamite, where he goes high and hard with the ball as the poor girl watches the rope wrap around the metal post.
This “buzz saw” move was not uncommon when I was a kid on the playground. It didn’t help that I was one of the shortest kids, and it was tough for me to jump up and stop it. However, I never took my off the ball because sometimes the trajectory would change or my opponent would mis-hit the ball just enough to allow me to get back into the game.
Do you ever feel like challenges are coming at you at high speed, and life is spinning so fast above your head that you can’t get a handle on it? You have a choice to keep jumping frantically in the air like a dork, trying to hit the ball or you can stand back and wait for it to calm down a bit before taking your shot.
I don’t see anything wrong with the strategic approach – watching the ball for a few rounds and taking note of how the speed and angle changes. I try to tackle life challenges the same way – watching, listening and thinking before I react. Sometimes I wait too long and the rope wraps around the pole (game over,) but a few rounds usually don’t hurt me.
See? Tetherball is just like the NFL… smart defense wins championships and cooler heads prevail under pressure. And most problems are not solved by frantic over-reaction. Take your shot when you’re ready.
Another inspirational writing perfect for Tuesday morning after Martin Luther King Day.
I love this, David. I do. I was laughing so hard when I read the part about the choice. It’s funny you talked about the two choices – jumping frantically in the air like dork or standing back to take the shot. When I was in school, I would see people just stand there and wait for the ball to hit them upside the head! LOL So that’s an obvious option NOT to take.
But one observation I have noticed and celebrate in honoring the tetherball is the fact it is just that – a ball on a string. And we can look at that a few different ways here.
Keep in mind a ball on a string can appear to be an opportunity with strings attached. We do a disservice to ourselves if we are not aware of this. Not all opportunities are shots worth taking.
The beauty of the tetherball though – is that if an opportunity is missed, it will come back around again when it is meant for us to actually take a shot at it. The ball isn’t really going anywhere – it is always there. Question is…. “when is it our turn and our time?”
AH – this is where divine energy comes into play. I’m a believer that for every missed opportunity – we learn something about ourselves and how we approach any situation. The key is adaptability and being open for the shot. If we don’t honor that within ourselves, something is truly missed.
Lots of folks choose to look at ‘that tetherball that got away.’ And they dwell on it. I believe that it got away, because it wasn’t your shot to take. Meaning — there’s always going to be the RIGHT opportunity that’s almost a custom championship shot made just for you – at any time. When you are truly ready on all levels, that’s when you get the chance to shine and take your best shot.
The rest is just practice. And there’s nothing wrong with practice. It’s good for the soul and exercises endurance muscles to show ourselves what indeed we are truly made of. More importantly, we can learn more about how far we’ve come in how we look at each upcoming tetherball game ahead and how we’re really not attached to the outcome so much as we are, ENJOYING the fact that there is indeed a game, a chance and a shot at the ball and we just show up and try to do our very best.
It’s like life. We give it our best shot. And in doing so, and celebrating each effort, we make it worthwhile!!!
Game on!
Namaste.
Stacey