Archive for 2017
Where Is The Light?
Tonight is the darkest, longest night of the year. Winter Solstice. Sometimes it can feel like the darkness will never lift. We are divided politically, religiously, economically, racially; by gender, sexuality, personally, and societally. We shout over each other. We do not listen. We do not ask what it feels like to be the person […]
mine, Mine, MINE!!!
Money. Everyone wants it. Nobody seems to have enough of it, whether you are a billionaire or someone who is struggling to pay your rent or mortgage. It is an intoxicating drug. I know. My eyes get big whenever I think of winning the lottery. And I have never even played the lottery. But that […]
Eighty-six or One?
It was the third set of the most intense match I saw at the Minnesota State High School League Girls State Tennis Tournament last week. The team match was tied 3-3, the deciding match was on the court with the two girls battling like two prize fighters trading weary punches, and everyone in the building […]
Not Everybody Likes Me???
The truth is, not everybody likes me. This is a hard truth for someone who has spent a great deal of his life wanting to be liked. But it is, nonetheless, the truth. And it is essential to know in going forward with any endeavor of importance without being paralyzed. When my daughter, Madeline, now […]
I See It
Summer camps end today. I could say, “Where does the time go?” but after 36 years of this, I have a pretty good idea. This is what I see that I could not see 36 years ago: I see a Tennis & Life Camps that will thrive long after I am dead. I do not […]
I Stink
“I stink.” Not words you expect to hear when you come upon a court of little tykes who had been 15 minutes ago having fun and laughing at the games they were playing on court. But, in the shade, sitting cross legged by himself while the chaotic energy of other eight year olds swirled around, […]
I Can’t Control The Rain
It is raining this morning as I write this. We are indoors with drills. For many years at TLC, we had a saying as a staff about weather. “Only God and Steve can control the rain…” Steve Wilkinson, co-founder of TLC, was like Moses parting the Red Sea. He looked up at the sky and […]
When Trouble Comes
It is never a matter of if. It is always a matter of when. Trouble will visit our minds and our lives. If we know this, we do not have to be afraid. We can face it without saying “Why me?” and say instead, as Arthur Ashe said when he contracted AIDS through an unscreened […]
Trusting Your Second Instinct
This morning, outdoors, at 6:45 AM CDT, I was destroyed on court by my buddy. He played brilliantly. He set up shots beautifully, and executed put-aways as effortlessly as if he were strolling down the Champs-Élysées . My own racket felt like a trampoline. I considered at one point stopping play, placing it between two benches, […]
May Day! May Day!
What if you started every game in tennis behind Love-40 against opponents of equal ability? How long before TLC’s Three Crowns of Positive Attitude, Full Effort, and Good Sportsmanship collapsed in on you? Today is May Day, the day of May baskets. May poles. May Day celebrations of spring (that season which does not occur […]