My buddy Dave Krueger and I were locked in what I wish I could say was a hard-fought, neck-and-neck battle on the tennis courts this afternoon, but in fact he was beating me senseless – like the Minnesota Vikings versus the Lennon Sisters. He shellacked me 6-2 in the first set and I honestly don’t know how I managed to even win two games, the way it was going. Then at 0-2 in the second, two young men rode up on their bikes and politely asked if we wanted to play two-on-two (meaning that they’ve played more basketball than tennis in their lives, just from the terminology they were using.) Dave immediately said “sure,” probably wanting to put me out of my misery – but I asked that we play a couple more games…. and somehow I managed to turn it around, played Dave to 3-3, and then won a tiebreaker 7-3. (Maybe knowing that there were two young men in the court was the kick in the butt I needed. Nothing drives me more dramatically than Avoiding Humiliation.) Anyway, they turned out to be brothers- Brandon and Justin – going into 7th and 9th grade respectively – and they were very nice, very polite. . . and pretty green as tennis players, since they didn’t even know how to keep score, and they were playing with racketball rackets instead of tennis rackets. But they were naturals for the game in a way that I will never be, especially in basic hand-eye coordination – and they glided around that court with amazing speed and ease. Anyway, they had thought that we would play the two of them, which would have been the biggest mismatch since Britain invaded Grenada, even with all their natural ability – so I persuaded them to split up. . . and I ended up aligned with the older of the two brothers, Justin- and he and I went on to a nicely satisfying 6-3 win over David and Brandon. It was such an interesting encounter because we had never met these young guys before and almost certainly will not cross paths with them again, unless we happen to bump into them again on the tennis courts. . . like two ships briefly passing one another at sea. . . but for these few minutes we had a ball together – and I’m hoping that they walked away with even more enthusiasm for the game of tennis and maybe some interest in really learning how to play it. ( Justin mentioned how he’s headed for Park H.S. next year and will play football and baseball, so he’s got some other irons in the fire – but it would be fun to see what he could do if he got serious about the game.) Anyway, it was really fun to meet these two young guys, so nice and so polite – and it was especially good to see two brothers being such good buddies for one another. (I’m not sure I was ever quite that nice or patient with Steve or any of my younger siblings.) Funny how life can deliver up these unexpected moments of grace that give you what amounts to a breath of especially invigorating fresh air.
pictured: Justin and I, winners of the first and only Berg-Krueger Island Park Invitational Tennis Tournament.