His Wings

The Hacker's Revenge!

The problem of crying?

Victory in the cry?

Defeat in the cry?

I was enamored by a youngster who held in every tear of her cry, until the last point in the match, last year.  I identified with her at each point in the match apart from the tears, the winning and the humility.  YOU have so much to be proud of!  Naomi got that from her win last year.  I do hope she has a chance to replay that match with a successful defeat.  

We who know the sport, know that she played phenomenal tennis.  She played the game that we all have been trying to figure out against the giant woman, who has dominated with her great game for a generation.  we love her, also, but we have said what would I have done to try to beat her.

Ruth used to say everyday “Youth is wasted on the young!”   She was saying if I had your game today, this is what I would have done to beat that giant.  It didn’t sound like that to us as youngsters.  It sounded like I did what you do much better than you do.  I hope that is not how I sound.  Nevertheless the hindsight that is 20/20 when applied to racquet in hand prevailed last year and the temper tantrum that Serena played out on the court brought a torrent of tears that are incomparable to the tears that her 15 year old opponent cried this year at the OPEN.  

My life was changed at that match!  I saw the combination of cultures cutting through the dominions that have crushed us for generations.  I could hear Bud Collins dissecting the cultures of that dear child and showing me the Japanese, Haitian, African/American parts of her emotional composure in that amazing match.  It was a monster that brought out the infant temper tantrum in the Queen of the Courts.  I haven’t come to that maturity to have a tantrum when I am afraid of a monstrous ability.  

We have seen many of the DNA combinations working to the best of their ability on the tangles of the game of tennis to come to a victorious end in a fortnight.  It engages us.  It challenges us.  It convicts us. 

Why can’t you overcome your life challenges in a lifetime, like she does in a fortnight?  That is the question that we ask ourselves, at these matches, when we give ourselves the privilege to watch it.

Bud used to give us a good expression of our griefs at not having the opportunity to do what these superhumans do.  He said as a Hacker you can do what you can do to feel the thrill of overcoming.  He used to go under the hood and show us some of the underworkings of the skills that we were observing.  50 years of playing and changing with the game gives you a birds eye view of the mechanics of the sport.  He held our hands through these matches.  He knew how to unnerve the victor to look for the enemy coming over the next hill and he could comfort the victim with a challenge to ie. lose the weight or grow in the game to become the victor that he knew that they could be.  I miss him much.   But I am afraid of this politically correct generation who can’t see the dynamic of culture and advancement that is built into the psyche of every person and show us how to inculcate it into our own games.

{He said, pretend you are a conquistador, like RAFA and go on the court.  See if it doesn’t  take your game up a notch!}  That is not racism!  That is owning up to the reality of the racial realities that we can all take hold of on the courts, if not in other portions of our lives.  Thanks Bud!

is the sky unfolding? How can we know if our eyes are on our devices?