Mulligan
Life is strange. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Unequivocally, LIFE itself will kill you. The first rule, though, is that there are rarely “do-overs” in this life. Simply put, to date, the “do-over” just has not been perfected. Who among us wouldn’t sign up for, and pay a premium for just one good “mulligan” in life. It would be like one singular opportunity to make a change or to correct something that might reset all subsequent events, causing first a ripple and then waves of change from that point forward.
A couple of weeks ago, I rode through and to some destinations that made me ask the question, “Would I be happy to live here?” Which led to the question “What would life be like, if? …..” My Saturday ride took me through the quaint little town of Abita Springs, and into Mandeville, Louisiana. When I look at the nice waterfront homes and the seemingly family-like and friendly appearing atmosphere of the area, I couldn’t help but imagine what it might be like to live in such a place. But it is like that dream of falling, you know. The one when you awake before hitting bottom because the brain is incapable of reproducing the actual impact in a dreamful image. Such is the act of attempting to answer the question, “What if?” To utilize the language of a mathematical equation, there just isn’t enough of the “given” to solve it. There are more unknown variables as opposed to known variables to answer such a question. Like the answer brought forth by the icosahedron in the Magic 8-Ball, “Cannot predict now.”
I was, up unto a few years ago, a member of the Board of Trustees of a small country club. In that position, I helped to host many golf tournaments. One of the most popular tournaments is the Four-man Scramble. In essence, the base format of the scramble allows 4 chances at every shot. As a purely money-making endeavor, many tournament organizers will sell “Mulligans,” (do-overs), in the quantity of 2 per round, which gives a 4 person team an additional 8 chances to make a shot to improve the team score and usually makes the club an extra $10 to $20 per player. There are two things critical about a mulligan in the game of golf. First, the decision to use a mulligan at any given time requires much consideration, and second, once the decision is made to use a mulligan, it is imperative that one makes it count.
This leads to the question, then, “If I could purchase a mulligan for real life, would I use it immediately to go back and correct a wrong, alter a course, or just wipe a slate clean? Or, would I holster it, forsake the ills of the past in lieu of the ability to unsheathe it in the future and cash in then? Remember, the second directive of a mulligan is to ALWAYS MAKE IT COUNT. Would I use my mulligan to exact change in my own life and personal surroundings, or would my mulligan be used to somehow help another to pull themselves up and into a better life? And of course, could I make it count?
When strings begin to unravel and the grasp of control weakens, these are the times when the errors of the past tend to resurface and to fester. The roads not taken show up in bright red on a Google map in the mind’s eye and the possibility of the mulligan comes to my mind.
I’ve had a few runs of less than ideal luck; extended runs, at times, but concurrently, I’ve counted myself among the fortunate. Generally, an obligation to hard times visited was a debt owed only by myself, for blame could only be placed consequent to my own actions. I never fully subscribed to the conventional lifestyle, always opting to choose a more exciting path, and in many ways, I’ve paid dearly for it. The truth is, I’ve done much of my life ass-backward at times and struggled at every turn. Life tends to be that way though. We find who is gonna be there when we are down and taking a pounding and the tap out seems more realistic. More importantly, we find who is not going to be there. When there are those who come through, unexpected and out of the blue, and then those whose replies become shorter then nonexistent, even when if the sides were reversed, you would be there for them, no matter what. I fully believe that if life were meant to be easy, then we wouldn’t experience the screwups, we’d have no regrets, and spend every second of every day being happy. I’m pretty sure anyone who fits that description belongs in an institution.
I read recently that the retirement age is 67 and the average life expectancy for a man in the United States is 78. I will be 57 next month, so that gives me less than 21 years to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I will say that I have managed to pack a whole lot of livin’ into these 56 years. I’ve been broke to the point where $25 was a fortune, and I’ve been rich, and every decimal point in between. I’ve made good decisions and I have made HORRIBLE decisions. I’ve laughed and I’ve cried like a big ole baby. I’ve been slapped to a knee, and I’ve survived the best they could throw at me. I’ve lived to do life in spite of any of those who bet against me. I’m certain that I would have used a mulligan at a point in my life. However, like my reference to the dream of falling, I have no way of knowing if I would have been able to make it count. Ultimately, I rely heavily on the belief that things happen in life for a reason and while little is preordained, there is limited rationale for life to be static.
The thoughts of old DBeazy of late have been a bit fractured. There is, it seems, a lot going on of late, mostly good, but some not so, as well. The act of writing is made difficult during times of fractal thinking and believe me, I’m all over the map presently. I’m reminded of this U2 video from 2004. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU1lSHV89M4 (if you are interested in watching) In the video, Bono is singing one of my favorite songs of all time in a live concert and at the end of the song, he looks to his drummer and says, “I’m not quite sure how to end this.” The musicians on stage look to the drummer and as they continue to play, the drummer counts off a 1 – 2 – 3 and brings the song to a perfect end.
Presently, I can identify with Bono in that I’m having trouble bringing my words together to a suitable summation. So I look to “drumbeat” in my mind and with a similar 1 – 2 – 3, I’ll finish with these thoughts.
Life, indeed, provides for very few “do-overs.” In this earthly existence, we are born and immediately set forth into motion, moving from this to that until the end of days. Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is why we have little chance for a mulligan because with one choice made, a chain of consequences began, and it is impossible to undo it all.
Notice that I referred to our “earthly existence.” Thankfully though, our purpose for being here isn’t limited to this plane. As a believer in an all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipotent God, I know that we are afforded many mulligans on the more important spiritual plane. We are all afforded a loving and graceful savior, whose desire for each and everyone is for us to have a relationship with him. One who forgives the mistakes of the past and allows for new starts throughout life when the taken road turns out to be other than the right one. I use some of the words to the song as an analogy. In life, we can easily become caught up in this or that, as if caught in a spell, then in the light of day what we see as heaven becomes more like hell; we feel that we are left to “burn eternally.”
So it is; that the grace of our Lord and Savior allows us to choose our own way. But it is important to note that like the mulligans in golf, we have to choose them wisely and we need remember it is imperative to make our mulligans count. While God promises to make sins as if they never happened, he also promises that one day, our souls will be demanded of us. That is the time when we will not want to be left to burn.