Indulge Your "Inner Grown-up"

Greetings Golfers,

Well, we’re rolling into the Holiday Season.

We just wrapped-up Halloween. Did you see that charming video titled “Mom Stealing Halloween Candy”? It’s real … not a gag. A family purposefully left out a bowl of candy on Halloween night … expecting that people wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. Was it kids taking all of the candy? Sure … but the mom was leading the charge.

During the past week, I’ve had the same conversation with a bunch of different people. Because this is a golf blog … I should let you know that some of the people were golfers -  a Tour Player and a guy who just played in a National PGA tournament. And the point of our conversations was that people liked/loved them because of who they are - not because how good they are at golf. And … though they’re characters … they want to be humble and not arrogant.

And some of the other conversations were people dreading the Holidays because they’re over-the-top. 

And … our waitress the other day was upset about going to an over-the-top wedding.

And on Weds, a guy wanting to do a golf event here … and me telling him to keep it SIMPLE.

Did I mention the article I read about the 25 year-old man who wore a Halloween costume and trick-or-treated because he “needed to indulge his inner child”?

Don’t people want to grow-up? 

Is being an adult viewed as not having fun? Is fun about non-stop over-the-top indulgence? And … mixed-in with a need to show-off?

Do people think they’ll be loved because of money, status, and power?

And that life is about using money, status and power to “indulge your inner child”?

I respect people because of their character. And I love people because we have real conversations … we go deep with each other. Real human interaction.

Have we become just a totally consumer society? Is that all matters? 

I think people are better than that. In fact, I KNOW people are better than that.

But it’s risky saying it.

Why is it risky? Because no one likes to hear that they’ve been conned. As Mark Twain said “It’s easier to fool people than convince them that they’ve been fooled”.

So … let’s enjoy the Holidays and try to make it enjoyable for our friends and family. Let’s be the grown-ups. The grown-ups who make sure that it stays simple and sane and human. It will naturally be fun. Fun happens. You can’t make it happen. 

The children want to be simple and relaxed and human. Everyone stressed-out trying to impress and/or indulging their inner child is not good for anyone. Especially kids.

I’m a social animal. I like parties. I like people. I’m not advocating dull and boring. I’m trying to speak for a lot of us who feel our society has lost its mind.

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com