Life is like a game of golf, enjoy the game, happy caddying

#motivation,  #inspiration,  #life,  #golf, #caddy, #caddying, #mudombi, #shakespear

by Shakespear Mudombi

The is a funny story that I was told when I was doing some fieldwork in one other country. During the field trip I was staying at a country club with a golf course.  I ended up having a bit of insight into how golf is played, thanks to my friend who was with his other childhood friend.  As we were talking and watching television, we ended up watching a game of golf , a PG Tour.

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In the discussion, that's when I got to know that a person who carries the golf clubs around when someone is playing - is called a caddy. These two guys can also play golf having got the experience by being caddies. 

We discussed a lot about their experiences as caddies including the payment and some of the challenges they encounter in their job. The caddies in this story are usually young boys of school going age who come to line up at the gate of the sports club (usually on Saturdays), waiting to be picked the players. It's hard work they said, because you carry the golf bag for many hours. They highlighted that some of the people they carry bags for are not willing to part away with cash, some give them coins while other give them less money using dubious means to instill fear in them (the young caddies).  

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My short story is about an incidence which happened to one of their fellow caddy colleague. On one of the Saturdays, this caddy was fortunate to be hired by one of the players to carry his bag. However, on this particular day he struggled as the bag was very heavy, not to mention the many hours and stretch he was gonna carry it. As he was a carrying the bag, the player he was carrying for, hit a ball and it got lost. Thus, he had to look for another ball in the bag. He was shocked to discover what was in the bag. What was making the bag very heavy were not golf clubs and the balls, rather a very heavy stone had been placed in the bag. That is my short story !!!

We deliberated and laughed on this story trying to find a reason why a person could do such thing - to put a heavy stone for someone to carry. In this talk, my two friends highlighted that some of the players are very stingy and don't want to pay for the services rendered. By putting a heavy stone in the bag the possible reason could be trying to get value for money, the caddy had to sweat for the money. It was also pointed out that some of the players can actually put many extra balls, just to make the bag heavy. 

From this story I learnt some important lessons. The first lesson is that many times and in most cases besides the services, some people do not really care about the person per se i.e. all they care about are the services rendered.  

Why would person put a heavy stone in a golf club bag? While this question can be best answered by the person who did it, they are many possible reasons, which is not the focus of the story. Narrating this story is not about trying to find the reasons why or trying to evaluate the moralness of the incident, but to highlight that often times we think other people really care about us, which is true to some extent. 

Nevertheless, excluding the services that we render, our value to some people gets close to zero.

Given the painful but important point that in most instances no one really values you as an individual - note well, I am not  being cynical here. All I am trying to highlight is that it is imperative to start valuing yourself, otherwise no one will do so on your behalf. While the young caddy felt that the money he got from carrying the bag was not enough, the owner of the bag thought the money he was giving out was too much hence adding the heavy stone to  make the  bag exceptionally heavy. The bag was very heavy for the caddy, nonetheless he endured. If it was not for the ball that got lost and needed replacement, which made him look for another ball in the bag, that is when he realized that the bag was actually too heavy because of a stone. 

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From this we can pick another important lesson, it was by chance that the caddy discovered the heavy stone. How many things in life that we leave things to chance - we never question why certain things are like that. We assume that the heaviness of the load we are carrying is normal, let's keep going. 

I pose this important question - do you deserve the heavy load that you carrying? If you start to assess your situation you will realize that there is an extra load that you are not supposed to be carrying. I am not saying that you should not carry other people's loads or relieve others,  my point is when you do so, do so willingly - on your own will, fully knowing that there is a heavy stone in the bag. Unfortunately, the heavy stone does not in any way help in the playing of the game, in other words, it is not important for the game at hand. Assuming the heavy stone is important then rather than carrying it for the full length of a golf course, why not put it aside then take it after the game. Hence, the question I posed - do you have to carry that load? If yes, should it be the full lengthy of the game?

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If you are aware that there is a heavy stone in the bag and it's truly a heavy load that you do not deserve to carry it, why not throw it away. When this caddy realised that there was a heavy stone in the bag, he did not negotiate with the player that the stone be taken out, he found an opportune time to throw away the stone when the player was busy focusing on hitting the ball.

Credit: Pixabay.com

This is an allegory. Life is a game of golf, it has a course - long and winding, with ups and downs; there are targets to be met. Similarly, there are moment of thrills and moments of sadness - all the same, the game keeps going. There are two main actors - the players and the caddies, those who are carried for and those who carry for (N.B have intentionally left the third actor - the spectactors). Some people set targets and in the process hire others to help them achieve the targets, and those who are hired will also achieve their targets in the process. In a proper setup, both the player and the caddy have the potential to enjoy the game, however, in the narrated story, the caddy was not too happy because of his relatively low payment, worse still when he realized the extra weight in the bag due to the heavy stone. 

Life tip - in case you are a caddy somewhere and somehow - open your eyes, assess and analyse the things you do (in all aspects of life), check is there an extra unnecessary heavy load that you are carrying, if so why make yourself tired by carrying something unnecessary and unusable. Remember, the stretch of the golf course is long and tiring. Open the bag and check, possibly someone stubborn put a very heavy useless stone in the bag for you to carry. If you find the heavy stone inside, if its not useful for the game at hand, then throw it away, nonetheless, if it's useful, keep carrying, endure - enjoy the game, happy caddying!!!!!!