For Love of the Game

Winning at pool is a nice little prize, all in itself. There are no ribbons or trophies, not yet at least. Just that sense of accomplishment. I was pondering how many hours, days, months of my life have been spent in a pool hall. That compilation of time would be considerable if it were actually tallied. I have thought, at times, that it is rather odd to have spent so much time in a pool hall. As I was rolling this thought around in my mind, I came across the quote on my daily calendar:

Normal is in the eye of the beholder.

-Whoopi Goldberg

It is normal for me to be in a pool hall. It's where I feel comfortable and connected to the people around me. We all have commonality. I have made some lifelong friends and met amazing people in pool halls. There are characters and couples, amateurs and wanna-be pro's, serious and silly, but we all enjoy the game.

The game is a gift to me. A talent. I can look at colored balls on green felt and know exactly what needs to be done to make those little round colors disappear. Some have talents for art, singing, business, cooking, computer graphics, shooting, driving, teaching, scrapbooking, parenting, running, speaking or a myriad of other talents and gifts. One of my gifts is the ability and desire to play pool. Not your normal, everyday run of the mill gift, but a gift nonetheless. What an honor. It truly is a blessing to know that God choose me to have this gift. In the billions of people that have lived and will live on the earth, only a comparatively small handful have this gift.

Hmm. It truly is in the way you look at it, now isn't it?