Life and Pool

I woke up a little after 6 AM this morning and could not go back to sleep so I decided to relax in the Jacuzzi for a little while and watch the sun climb into the sky.

As I sat in the 100 plus degree water and felt my aching joints loosen up and my slightly old muscles relax my mind began to drift back to the "good old days when times were hard". I started to remember a lot of the things my Mom used to tell me when I was a kid and we were dirt poor. My Mom has been gone for just a little over a year now and it is hard for me to believe, even now, over a year after her passing away, that she really is gone from this earth. I used to call her on Saturday or Sunday morning while I sat in the Jacuzzi and we would reminisce about the "good old days when times were hard" so it just seems natural for me to think of that and of her as I sat there in that warm, soothing, bubbling water.

I play a lot of pool and while I enjoy playing pool I have begun to relate the game of pool to life. I have heard many good pool players say that pool is more than a game, it is a way of life. Some of the older and greater players have said "The game of pool is like the game of life." The more I play the game and think about it in those terms the more I see just what those wise old pool players are trying to say. Maybe Tom T. Hall should have included pool in his song along with "Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine....".

Pool is a game that is win or lose. It is a game that for there to be a winner there must also be a loser. As long as we play pool we will always have to accept that we will not always be the winner so it is simple logic that we must sometimes be the loser. As in life, the game does not always go the way we would like and we don't always have the ability to control the outcome. We are sometimes the fortunate recipient of an easy or lucky win so we must accept that sometimes we will be on the other side of that coin and be dealt an unlucky or unjust loss and we must know this will happen before it happens.

My zodiac sign is Libra and that supposedly means that I seek balance in all I do. I have come to believe that balance is important in all things and that is true in life and it is true in pool too. Me must have a good offensive game balanced by a good defensive game. We must win and we must also lose. We must pursue our dreams and all the time protect those things in life that are important to us. We must find balance between our commitments to family, career, personal growth, spiritual growth, present concerns and plans for the future. The Chinese have known these simple truths for thousands of years and call it Yin and Yang. Scientist refer to a law of physics that requires that for each action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. The Bible teaches us about the forces of good and evil.

In pool, as in life, we tend to learn more from the hard times or loses than we do from the easy times or the wins. That very well may be human nature but I sincerely believe that we can learn good lessons when we win and even better lessons when we lose. The real trick is to focus on the correct portions of the game or focus on the correct portions and events in life. Our life is what we focus on and there are good things happening even in bad times and so goes the game of pool.