Team Bogey in Microcosm...Vet Visit

While weighing decisions as to how much longer to keep feeding the "yard ornament" known as our horse, we had the veterinarian come to give him his annual shots, albeit a couple months late, as these types of expenses have had to be moved down the priority list.  Asking him how things were going, the vet gave a moderated reply, which led to the inevitable summary conversation about the slow economic times, and how everyone we come into contact with has been affected in one way or another by them. We touched on the slow business pace, began to exchange the familiar head shake of many such interactions, and I think we both knew where the conversation was headed; as it is one that is repeated millions of times a day, the world over, and one which has undergone somewhat of a  transformation in recent times.  It usually begins with the standard question, "How's it going?", to which the formerly standard reply was, "good, and you? ". In the past, this exchange might have been followed with legitimately upbeat conversation about business and family matters, maybe a sports anecdote or two, and even a good or bad joke to top it off.  But over the past several years, there has developed a slight hesitation for many, as they either ask, or prepare to respond, to the aforementioned question. 

 

Those who can still legitimately claim that they are "good", may be less inclined to flaunt such status to those to whom they may be speaking, while others, having grown weary of trying to put a positive spin on tough circumstances, find it increasingly difficult to utter the standard reply, "good, and you?", without at least a brief hesitation before answering.  The question more frequently concluding such conversations is "What are you going to do?", and the answer has more often become..."I don't know".

 

With this current reality in mind, and in an attempt to guide the conversation in a positive direction, I raised  the subject of Team Bogey.com, it's association with the life analogous game of golf; including ongoing struggles, overcoming bad breaks, and continuing to battle through adversity. This led to the discussion of the frequency, or lack thereof, with which either of us had been playing, and ultimately, to my horse savvy friend expounding upon his first introduction to the game, as well as his experience creating what he called "Sierra golf", while guiding pack trips in the Sierra Mountains of California/Nevada. This form of golf involved picking out trees as holes, and working around an improvised course, for mountainside competition, and campfire bragging rights. We spent the next several minutes discussing similar experiences, like targeting baseball backstops on the schoolyard with an old golf club and ball that a childhood neighbor provided; the benefits of fewer clubs to choose from, and how it forced learning to play multiple shots with the same club; and how less wrist action and a shorter back swing had been helpful to someone, who I now realized, was clearly Team Bogey. He went on to describe playing the early computer golf games that offered entertainment out of the elements, with similar feel and frustrations to those of playing the real thing. I let him know that our conversation was just the sort of thing that Teambogey.com was about, and thanked him for the inspiration and "blogfodder". 

 

Spirits lifted, after a brief, mental escape to the sanctuary of golf and sport that we might have otherwise shared at our local clubhouse, we parted company with a handshake and a smile, prepared to return to matters at hand. Waving to the vet as he headed down the road, I turned to the freshly vaccinated "yard ornament" staring at me over the fence, interpreting his inquisitive, equine stare, to be asking the question:  "What are you going to do?"... With a stroke of his soft nose, and the toss of a flake of hay, the muffled answer came from under my breath..."Keep Battlin'. 

 

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