Five hundred years and change ago, Christopher Columbus, armed with a questionable map and some shaky directions, set sail from the coast of Spain with a crew of misfit marauders seeking a westward trade route to Asia. Like any good bro, Columbus thought he knew a shortcut. Oh, his route was shorter, alright, landing him in The Americas, thousands of miles from his desired East Indies. History hasn't been kind to Columbus; his Old World pillar and plunder did much harm to the New World's natives. However, we still celebrate Columbus Day on this October 14th to commemorate his discovery of the Americas, opening the door to European exploration and colonization of the New World.
Yeah, that colonizing thing, pretty frowned upon today, as is Columbus Day for that matter. Noble in its intent, celebrating humanity's explorer spirit, there was an unfortunate dark side to Columbus' endeavors. Columbus' old-time seafarers were a motley lot. Let’s say their day excursions didn't involve sightseeing and banana boats. Columbus would eventually make a total of 4 trips to the Caribbean (hard to damn a guy for that!!), fueling an unsubstantiated rumor he was a founding investor in Sandals. And though Columbus Day hasn't been fully canceled yet, let’s say we prefer our explorers more like Dora today. For the moment, Columbus’ Day is on life support, now having to share its holiday with the Indigenous People Columbus so severely mistreated. Not here to pass judgment, much of our human progress has come at great cost. But we continue to set aside this day to celebrate humanity's explorer spirit and for his establishing the routes from Europe which in time would become the United States of America..
Today, we live in a known world. Google has taken over the map business, GPS satellites silently hover above us in low orbit, knowing our whereabouts down to the lane we drive. Today, we explore our earthly existence in different ways. Yesteryear's exploring is today's journey. These journeys can be literal, the wanderlust to travel the world a driving life force for many. Or they can be metaphorical experiences that expand us, enlarge us, enlighten us, and more.
The Seekers among us. The conveniences of the past century have created a whole new breed of explorers. The Beats sought the heartbeat of America, the counterculture sought enlightenment looking inward, with the modern triathlete and his Ironman exploring the limits of the human body's endurance. Finnegan's Barbarian Days mapped the world's beaches searching for the perfect wave, Musk talks of a manned mission to Mars, though in lieu of his recent public behavior, I'm leaving that as a you thing.
But there's another journey far more accessible and, perhaps, enjoyable for exploring our innermost selves. I argue there's no greater journey for self-knowledge than embarking upon the tennis life.
The tennis journey. It is long. It is mysterious. It’s a never-ending process of discovery. It challenges us; it changes us. Set out to play tennis, come home someday, a member of a select fraternity, a tennis player. It becomes a defining part of your identity. Meet another player, a fellow traveler. There's an instant connection. The sharing of a unique human experience. You see it in other subcultures: surfers, Deadheads, Mothers. I love watching from afar as these kindred spirits connect. Their eyes light up. They share a secret world with its own language and codes. Where did you play, what level did you reach, who did you train under? It's a conversation only tennis players can have and understand. An inside joke, but meaningful.
To discover so much about ourselves from the most innocent and prevalent human activity: playing. We play tennis, we go to play, the court, our adult-sized playpen, the club, our playground. And it starts innocently enough, trying to play this most challenging of games. Then, we cross the line from playing to competing. And let the inward exploration begin. Who knew our fun little game could be so complicated? But it is. The uncertainty, the doubts, the insecurities, the challenges, the baggage we carry all run through our inner sense of self lying mostly dormant within. It doesn't get triggered often, but when it does, it exposes. Who am I? How am I? What am I made of? Do I have it? The tennis rites of passage, for we're all terrible initially, and that terribleness can be scarring. But we trudge forward on this journey of self-discovery; our constitutions won't allow us to give up.
And then you have your breakthrough, you battle, you overcome, you surprise yourself and others to finally have your own personal moment of coronation. Now it’s on, racket bagging our way through the tennis life. Hope and dreams in one pocket, fears and uncertainties in another, the weight of imposter syndrome weighing you down like a brick. Do I measure up? Do I belong here? It can get heavy, the things we carry. But once again, we transcend. It’s rarefied air achieving success at such a complex game; none of this comes early or easy. Hence why tennis players are so eager to share their travails with one another. It’s a lot to carry around on one's own.
And the verbiage of battle, is it not the language of exploring? We dig deep, we find out what we're made of, I didn't know I had it in me, I found a way, my well was dry, I had nothing left, I felt lost out there, we reach the end of the line, mapping out a plan, wading into uncharted waters, breaking new ground, trailblazing, on a mission, pushing the boundaries, doing reconnaissance on an opponent. To boldly go where no man has gone before!! Ok, that's a bit much, but no question, the exploring spirit permeates our sport.
To better understand our nature, many go to therapy to explore our psyches for hidden clues. I say enter a tournament. Best therapy ever. Instead of benches, courts should have couches.
The four horsemen of health. Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual. Are our respective houses in order? Are we taking care of ourselves in these all-important ways? Play some competitive tennis, and you'll quickly find out. All the attributes of the healthiest and most successful among us, how do we measure up? Are we disciplined, confident, clutch, tough, gritty, patient, determined, optimistic, pessimistic, gluttonous or gluttons for punishment? It is best to stay atop these traits, for the tennis journey is long and it can run a little stressful.
And we can get broadsided on this journey we embark upon, the exposing and exploring of self. We would never go to the beach or climb a mountain unprepared. Yet we throw ourselves into the tennis journey unaware of the profound challenges ahead, leaving so much to chance, not the least being our enjoyment and fulfillment. Must it be this way? Can't we teach these all-important performance-enhancing as well as life-enhancing qualities right from the first ball? Who among us would not benefit greatly thus? Wouldn't it be great if there was an APP for that!!
Tunneling within, exploring our innermost selves; it’s not for everyone. It can be a dark, mysterious business. It can also be an agonizing, hazardous undertaking, so explore cautiously.
For through the tennis life we can, like Columbus, continue to explore, just differently. And what a gift. To learn life’s most essential lessons from playing a game like our game of tennis. How fortunate can we be? For it is in the spirit of play, of renewing the awe and wonder and innocence of youth, we continue to play this sport for a lifetime, honoring humanity's insatiable spirit of play and exploration on this Columbus Day
Simple,tennis is life!!
brilliant! another bullseye!