The Godly Golf Guru

Yes I’m a huge Packers fan, and may be a little biased, but I think it’s HILARIOUS that everyone keeps talking about the “backup quarterback situation” in Green Bay. (It’s all over ESPN)

When was the last time ANYBODY showed concern for a weak second- or third-string quarterback in Indy or New England??

I’m not comparing Aaron Rodgers to Manning or Brady, but I am saying that Matt Cassell or Jim Sorgi would look just as horrific as Matt Flynn or Brian Brohm if they were handed the football
after the starting QB goes down. (Actually I think Matt Flynn would do a pretty good job)

Geez people, pick a new topic as “concern” for Green Bay. If all the so-called experts can come up with is a lack of backup depth at QB,
then I’d say the Packers are sitting pretty and ready for another big year!

At least ESPN has Green Bay ranked as the #10 team in the first power rankings of 2008

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/powerranking?season=2008&week=1&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

I’m going through a dry spell of things to talk about.

So, go read Andy Mcnutt’s blog about Tennessee football. I share his sentiment.

So as I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, I’m recovering from hip surgery. This has significantly hindered my efforts to play golf, but I believe in the end it will all be worth it. I’m doing physical therapy and getting stronger, and I’m hitting golf balls a few times a week. I’ve only played once. It was 9 holes, and it’s was treacherous.

I will tell you, though, I am learning patience. This is just one of the virtues golf teaches. If you want to play golf, you have to have patience. There is no way around it. It’s different from any other sport. Football requires anger, aggression, intensity, and a lot of fearlessness. Golf requires fearlessness, but there is no room for anger or aggression. You can be an intense golfer, but you must control your emotions.

Does this remind you of anything? It reminds me of life. I believe in living life with intensity, passion, fearlessness, and the occasional anger (righteous indignation is preferred!). However, how many times do we let these feelings get us in trouble? The answer is different for each person, but I can assure you we’ve all been “there”. I wish I could challenge the World to quit taking everything so personally, and control what we say and how we treat each other.

One more sports analogy: look at baseball. In baseball, another unique “control your emotions” sport for the reason I’m about to tell you, a fielder - meaning when you are on defense trying to get the batter out - must have a fearless, intense, quite reckless attitude to play well. It’s the “football” side of baseball, if that makes sense. Conversely, when the same fielder come to bat, things change. All recklessness must be put to rest for the time being. The batter has to control his adrenaline and remain very focused, because the pitcher is about to do everything in his power to prevent the batter from hitting the ball. Carelessness or anger or too much aggression will only lead to a strike out. This is the “golf” side of baseball.

So golf teaches us to be patient and control our crazy tendencies. Baseball, too, can be applied to life in that we have to know when to be reckless and when to be focused. So what’s it going to be? Football, golf, or baseball?

I bet if you chose golf you’d get more out of Mass? HA

Madden 09 comes out today, and yes, Brett Favre will be a Jet on the game. If you’ve seen my previous post about Favre, you know I’m a Packers fan and a Brett Favre fan.

I was really hoping he would come back and play for the Packers. I almost got my wish when he was reinstated by Roger Goodell (NFL Commissioner) and flew into Packers
training camp in a spectacle that reminded me of a certain white Bronco and how closely that was watched on TV. I think it was around 1996…

However, to my disgust, Favre was traded to the Jets. I don’t even want to begin discussing why this happened. I’m just accepting that it has been done. I will always remain
a Packers fan, and I guess I can root for Favre since he’s on an AFC team that the Packers do not play (until the Super Bowl). What a mess.

So, for now, I will buy Madden, play as the Packers, and maybe occasionally play as the Jets and see how Darth Favrer will fair in the tough AFC.

Or, I’ll just go play golf!

Yea, I hit golf balls around 7:00 tonight. I melted more than the Wicked Witch in OZ. It was my first post-hip-surgery effort to hit balls outside on natural grass (I had hit a few times in doors at a local indoor golf simulation training facility - much cooler). Yes, you did read right when I said post-op. I had surgery on my right hip on April 24 for something called “femoroacetabular impingement”, or something like that. You can look it up, but I will say it’s not a hip replacement, just a bone that had formed the wrong way and caused some problems in my hip. A few months removed from surgery and still recovering with psychical therapy, I attempted to hit some balls outside…and failed. I had no expectations, so at least I had that going for me. I have a long way to go, but I just have to re-learn my swing, because I have the capability and flexibility now that I’ve never had before. So I am optimistic. I am going to just keep praying for recovery and the ability to get my swing back, for as the Holy Father has said, “Let’s not shackle the Holy Spirit, so that He can make of us works of art!” (thank you to my sister, Kristin, for the quote). Back to the golf, it was HOT. Actually it’s not just the heat, because it gets hot in California or Colorado, but it’s the humidity we are so blessed with here in Memphis. As long as I stay hydrated, it’s possible with some getting used to - I’ll just make sure I have an extra glove…and shirt…maybe some extra spikes…extra clubs for when they slip out of my hand and go flying aimlessly onto the range…pine tar…40 box fans…Big League Chew…smelling salt for heat stroke…127 towels…Lou Diamond Phillips…magnifying glass for ants trying to get into Big League Chew…swimsuit…the list could go on, but why?

Peace

We live in a cynical world with completely self-absorbed people who will do almost anything to “fill the void” in their life. I fall victim to this cliche at times, too. I think we all do at some time or another. We all have the capacity to do evil, and we all have the capacity for good. What was the famous quote? “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing” ? Forgive me if I misquoted, but I think about this quote a lot. I often think about quotes, and this one seems timely as I think about self-absorbed people who seem so miserable. They have no peace of mind. It’s a terrible thing to live with no peace or to live in fear of something. I think we all have good in us, and we need to stop making excuses for why we don’t use it. Maybe we’re afraid to lose what makes us “special” as people cling to the attention that is received with self-pity and pity from others. I think being angry, rebellious, depressed or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t make anybody special or attention-worthy, it just makes them miserable. Life is hard enough, why add to the tragedy? The only thing that’s going to fill the void is something REAL, an acknowledgment that there are things bigger than ourselves out there. The answer is easy - GOD. Half the World won’t admit it, because half the World simply does not want to DEAL WITH THIER WICKEDNESS. It’s the oldest trick in the freakin book: “Man, I have to feel guilty about doing terrible things? Well, if I just don’t believe that what I’m doing is terrible, or what I’m doing has any consequences, then, hey, I feel no guilt!!” WRONG. I learned a long time ago that we don’t get to decide what is right or wrong, for truth is not relative. People can think all they want that certain things are ok, but that in no way changes truth. The opposite of peace of mind is a guilty conscience. I believe there are people who have so screwed up their morals that they do not feel guilty about what they do anymore, so they may think they have peace of mind, but I assure you they are the emptiest of all. True happiness comes from self-realization, faith in Salvation, and living a purpose-driven life of meaning. Without these things, what else do we have? Wether you believe in life after death or not, either way we can take NOTHING with us when we die. The only thing we have are people, souls, relationships. Time out for an honesty-check. I (the person writing this) have a lot of cool “things”, I don’t worry about money, and I have had some terrible family experiences. I tell you this to put things in perspective. Everyone has their own sad story. everyone goes through pain and hardship - this doesn’t excuse anything. All we can do is use the pain to make things better. If not then we, as the quote says, are letting evil triumph. We know who wins the battle in the end. I want to be there in the end. I want to be on the winning side. I want to bear witness to the end of evil, because that SOB has done enough to my family and me.

I watched the ESPYs Sunday night, and I was quite pleased. I’m not a big fan of Justin Timberlake, but I must say, he was pretty funny. He poked fun at Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson which I always enjoy. The show was good, especially when Will Ferrell accepted Tiger Wood’s award for Best Male Athlete. I laughed. Out loud. A lot. Anyways, in my last post I mentioned my admiration for Favre. I won’t delve very much into the subject, because if you follow sports, you’re probably sick of Favre-Gate. All I’ll say is that I think it’s a mess, but in the end - ok I have no idea how this will end, I’ll wait and see. Ha. Favre is a Catholic at least:

http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=25755

So I’m writing this blog on my computer (MAC) using my wireless router (Airport Express). I tell you this because it has taken me SO MUCH time to get this all working. Yes, it’s supposed to be easy, and I’ve actually talked to Apple Care (customer service) twice! My cable-given modem was making it quite difficult for communication with my Airport Express. But I persevered and finally got it all working, including my printer, which I can now print with wirelessly. Pretty sweet stuff.

Peace be with you

If there’s one thing I love more than golf it’s football! I am so amped up for football I can barely contain myself. No really. I’m about to go pre-order Madden ‘09, get the special addition with Madden ‘89 and some other goodies, pre-order NCAA ‘09, do a practice fantasy draft online for the upcoming fantasy football season, paint black under my eyes, buy football pads, and go play football! OK, maybe I took it too far. I haven’t be able to play golf this year, save for a few times, because of a hip problem I’ve had (probably from too much football!). I’m recovering from surgery, but that’s another story. For now just know that I have played golf maybe 5 times this year! 5 times! I feel amputated. But I will soon be back in the “swing” of things. Football, however, is around the corner. I am and will always be a Green Bay Packers fan. Yes I am also a Brett Favre fan - the main reason I became a Packers fan in the early ’90s. I know everyone is sick of hearing about his retirement. I, for one, have yet to watch his “retirement” press conference, because I knew he wasn’t done. He can still play at a high level, and the Packers are on the brink of something great. He is what they need to get back to glory! Their defense is a top-5 squad, and their receiving corps is a top-5 squad. Their #4 actually (go figure):

Read More Here 

So Brett needs to come back in my opinion. I’m not aggravated at all with his dancing around the subject. Of course I am biased, but the guy’s done more for the city of Green Bay than the color green that the Bay was named after. I think he’s kind of earned a pass to do whatever he wants after 17 years of never missing a start and setting every quarterback record that you can think of. I think Aaron Rodgers will be a good quarterback. He will ever know how valuable it was for him to sit on the sideline and not play, so that he can learn and prepare for the time when he is called upon to play. That time is not now. With this team of talent, they need a veteran leader who has been there before and can take them all the way. Or maybe this is the year the Buffalo Bills win one for Jim Kelly?

Ahh, the spontaneous acts we engage in from time to time. I don’t usually act spontaneous, but I felt compelled this past Thursday when I saw on Facebook that a friend of mine was looking for someone to go to St. Louis with him. He was going to meet his girlfriend, who lives in Minnesota, half way and go see a game with her, but she wasn’t able to go. Being the Mets fan that I am, I said I’d go. My friend is from New York and along with another New Yorker (a Yankees fan) we left Thursday around noon and made the 4:30 hour drive to St. Louis. There’s not much between Memphis and St. Louis, except for some “throwed rolls” at Lambert’s. The Mets won 11-1, it was my first Mets game ever, and I’ve been a fan since childhood. No particular reason, I just liked blue, Daryl Strawberry and HoJo, and baseball cards. I really enjoyed the city of St. Louis in my brief stay. I wish to go back soon, maybe spend a weekend. Maybe I’ll go to the Cathedral and try and see the Archbishop before he leaves for Rome! Congratulations to him. All in all, I can’t wait to go back. So here’s to more random acts of fun we should all engage in!

I was awoken this morning to normal temperatures, mainly because I have an oscillating fan sending cool currents throughout my room. It didn’t taken me long to realize the AC was not working. This is a nightmare in a Memphis Summer. Luckily, I live at an apartment with a ready-staff willing to fix any problems I encounter. So I made the call, and it did take about an hour and a half for someone to come, but I used my fan wisely in the meantime. I remained comfortable. All this talk about the “AC” only reminded me of the renowned actor, Mario Lopez, and his oscar-worthy portrayal of A.C. Slater on the strangely popular Saved By the Bell, which I shamefully admit to watching as a youngster . A great debate arrises when the question is raised: which show was cornier and cheesier: Saved By the Bell of Full House? That question may never be answered by any human, for it is too difficult and mind-bending. However, at least the shows had meaning to them - a reminder to me off innocence at a young age. As I’ve gotten older it seems harder and harder to avoid temptation. I’m not going to go on a spiel about how bad TV is nowadays. Everyone knows that, but we still watch, myself included! I guess all we can do is remember that what we’re watching and the characters we admire should never influence the people we are trying to be. We’re called to be Christ-like, simply. So, yeah, I’m not going to stop watching TV. It’s just for entertainment. And if you want shows with meaning, well, you better look for some old reruns of Saved By the Bell or Full House. Or you could just watch golf…