The Match of a Lifetime: A Parable

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The Match -- and Risk Taking

From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/10/00
Time: 4:35:50 PM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50

Comments

Dale--

WOW !!!! Heavy stuff. Powerful.

I have read your Parable several times, and each time I seem to get different things out of it. At the surface level would be such things as "keep trying" and "don't give up." But there are different and deeper levels.

But what do I know about Tennis? I am a "wannabee" golfer. (My car license plate is **PAR 4.**) So I tried to translate your Tennis Parable into golf, and I attempted to relate both golf and tennis to stuttering. After all, both talking and playing golf take certain degrees of skills, and in both cases the motor skills can slip and erode under conditions of internal and external pressures. In tennis, are you trying to serve an ace-- or are you trying not to double fault? In speaking, are you trying to talk, or are you trying not to stutter?

In the final analysis, I think the issue that strikes home with me the most has to do with RISK TAKING. Whether it is taking on the kid who always wins and never loses, or whether it is taking on the challenges of a forehand, back hand or serve, --- or sinking a four foot putt, risks are involved. Likewise, there are risks involved in talking, making phone calls, giving an oral report, and speaking under time-pressure.

Risk taking is important, and very much a part of this, and I think you hit the nail on the head. And if we can be chalenged by risk taking, moreso than threatened by risk taking, we have a better chance of success.

Well, Dale -- your parable has some deep meaning, and I feel I only scratched the surface. I'll need to read it again, and again, and again.

I'll need to remember your tennis experience this Saturday, at 9:00, when I face my first critical four-foot putt.

Thanks for helping me to think about some things from a slightly different perspective. Thanks for sharing !!

Steve Hood.


Last changed: September 12, 2005