What does one do when you make a wager and lose everything? A number of years ago, I purchased ATA stock. ATA flew club members on vacation trips all over the world. It offered direct flights from Indianapolis and provided tremendous value for those who used its service and owned its stock. But something went wrong, the company over-extended, and finally went bankrupt. Those shareholders who held on to the end received nothing for their stock purchase. As an investor, you move on.
But what of investments in relationships? Suppose you invest five years, ten years, 25 years, of your life in a significant other. Then one day, they are gone. Bad enough if they die in a plane crash or fall to disease, but perhaps worse if they just announce they’ve found someone “nicer, and better looking.”
If taken by death or disease, you at least embrace the memories, and savor the good times. Yet, that doesn’t seem possible if in the end they reject you, tell you that you are like a pair favorite sneakers that no longer fit when the person returns home from camp. Rejection.
What does one do in the face of a dead loss, not of money, but of self-respect, self-worth, personhood?
If you are a person of faith, you say there is a greater plan, Jeremiah 29:13 says: “I have a plan for you, not to harm you, but to prosper you, to give you hope and a future.” Yet, such words easily ring hollow.
Perhaps you embrace the opportunity presented. Maybe they are right. Maybe you’re not all you should be. Take on a new hobby, a new focus, reassess and improve who you are.
Our world provides an abundance of circumstances where the mundane becomes the beautiful, no better example exists than the caterpillar who becomes a butterfly. Even if Nietzsche ended up in an asylum, many times that which does not destroy you does make you stronger.
Defy the dead loss; instead, fly. Soar above and beyond. Take the defeat. Own it; crush it; eat it for breakfast, defecate it out and start anew. Fly.

Copyright 2016—David J. Carr

Gold gets more attention than golf, but they share an important characteristic. You see gold offers the ultimate safe haven of value. The value of gold has not changed since the Roman Empire. Today you can buy the same amount of bread for the same amount of gold as you could in 30 A.D. You put your money in gold so that you neither lose nor gain. This makes it a terrible investment if you want to get rich, but a wonderful investment if you want to avoid being poor.

Just so, golf. However, instead of being a store of value, golf offers a storing of time.

Some say golf constitutes a terrible waste of time. Those same people might say purchasing gold constitutes a waste of resources. In truth, it depends.

Based on my own golfing experiences, some terrible, angry people play golf. In doing so, I am convinced they’ve found an outlet for their violence and hatred. Instead of committing some vile act against family, friends, or complete strangers, they play golf. In such circumstances, golf saves lives. It may be the greatest game ever invented for that reason. All of us should glory in the nature of golf.

On the other hand, if golf prevents you from feeding the poor, nurturing your children, or earning a living, it wastes your precious time on earth. It constitutes a curse on humanity.

So you see that golf, like gold, may prove either help or hindrance, depending on the alternative uses of your time. It holds the time in a neutral space, like gold.

Recently, I read where a young woman was abducted off a bike. Searchers discovered her lifeless body three days later. They arrested the villain responsible within 24 hours, based on excellent police work and a trail of evidence which included an arrest and conviction for attempting to kidnap a young woman twenty years ago. The barn on his farm had a secret room suggesting other victims suffered a similar fate.

I fervently wish the gentleman had played golf, loved it, and spent all his free time trying to improve his game.

Copyright 2016–David J. Carr