Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sometimes It's Better to Let Others Play Through

Comes word from For What It's Worth, a blog chronicling the real estate market in Greenwich, Connecticut and its perpetrators as well, members of the golf team at the Brunswick School, an old and lately prestigious private school there, were caught in a traffic jam on Interstate 95 and in peril of missing an important tournament. A clever team member called his pa on his cell and arranged for a charter plane to whisk him and his teammates to Fishers Island, New York where the tournament was held. They made it just in time and won the tournament to boot.

If you think my purpose here is to beat up that kid for such an upper-class stunt, guess again. Eighteen years old, if that, the kid came up with an effective solution to a vexing problem facing him and his teammates and should be (and no doubt was) congratulated for his resourcefulness. In fact, perhaps a tad embarrassed, the kid shrugged off his accomplishment, insisting the plane was a mere "puddle jumper" (a two-engine Beechcraft turboprop) and didn't cost "that much because his dad knows the charter company owner." No doubt.

I wish, however, the kid's old man, instead of acceding to the gold-plated SOS had instead, while expressing sympathies for his plight, explained to his son that regardless of our circumstances, setbacks do occur and rather than move heaven and earth to thwart every last one of them, sometimes it is better just to just accept them; as God's will, fate--what have you. In the grand scheme, a prep school golf tournament is not that big a deal but in denying his son's request, the boy and his chums might have learned a valuable lesson, worth at least as much as the ungodly tuition at the Brunswick School, and one that could prove to be pure gold while making their way through life's journey.

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