My Goal Post

Yeah, if you know me by now, you know the pun’s intentional

Tillerman’s latest writing challenge is for his loyal readers to create a blog post about goals, especially sailing goals, and then give him the link for his writing project.

Well, if you’ve been paying attention lately, you already know that I have a seriously jaundiced attitude toward all that optimistic goal-setting stuff, especially as I have been forced to do at work.

So my first reaction to Tillerman’s challenge was to blow it off. But then … but then … I owe Tillerman too much to blow him off. I really ought to come up with something at least vaguely goal-like in nature to add to his group writing project.

So I started thinking … What goals do I have?

Well, I’d really like to see a good youth sailing program going here in New Mexico. For several years, Pat and I have been working on getting Scout troops and youth groups onto the water on Sunfish and other small boats. Getting kids on the water and having fun in sailboats does two things: It gets the kids themselves interested in sailing, so when they grow up, they continue to sail and keep the sport of sailing going. It also gets their parents involved, and brings their families into sailing, to keep the sailing club young and active.

It looks like youth sailing here might finally be reaching a threshold at which it will be taking off. I will be in on it, but it is really others who will be the driving force. So I can’t really consider this to be one of MY goals.

And then there’s Zorro’s team, participating on behalf of the Rio Grande Sailing Club in the national men’s championships, the Mallory Cup, in San Francisco this fall. According to the folks up in Denver, there has never been a team from the Sailing Association of Intermountain Lakes in the national finals before. I want Zorro to do well, not only for his own sake but for the RGSC and SAIL. And I want to do everything I can to help Team Zorro to succeed.

But again, that’s not a goal for me. It’s a goal about other people, and it depends on those other people to do their part.

So what the heck should I put into my goal post?

Well, let’s see … as Bobby Bare sang, to words and music by Paul Craft …

Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goalposts Of Life

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

Make me, oh make me, Lord more than I am
Make me a piece in your master game plan
Free from the earthly tempestion below
I’ve got the will, Lord if you’ve got the toe.

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

Take all the brothers who’ve gone on before
And all of the sisters who’ve knocked on your door
All the departed dear loved ones of mine
Stick’em up front in the offensive line.

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

Yeah, Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

No, sorry, that doesn’t work either. I’m not one to get kicked around like a football, even the American sort. So I don’t really have a goal for myself, and I really don’t want some other entity to be making a goal for me.

I guess when it all comes down to it, my goal is not to have a goal. I just want to sail, and as sailing happens, I want to enjoy it. I will take joy in the youth sailing, and I will take joy in Zorro’s success, as those happen. Why am I supposed to be hungry for more? And why is being hungry and then satisfying the hunger supposed to be better than not being hungry in the first place?