Monday, July 19, 2010

Introspective Interlude 1


Lately, I've gotten back into the practice of listening to books on tape or CD in my car instead of music or the radio. This certainly helps out with my goal of reading 75 books by the end of the year. It also gives me a quite a variety of reading/listening material.

The book I most recently finished was A Match Made in Heaven by Robert L. Mitchell. It tells the story of a Harvard professor named Elliott Goodman. The good professor has a heart attack, and while the hospital staff is trying to save his life, a dialogue with God. God asks why he should spare Elliott. God gives him a chance to save his life by playing golf. God sends down 18 icons of human history to play against Elliott, 1 per hole. he plays for his life against people like Leonardo DaVinci, John Lennon, Babe Ruth, Edgar Allan Poe, Moses, Gandhi, Socrates, and others.

This is not a Christian book, and will not match Christian theology in any manner. However, that's not really the aim of this post. While I enjoyed the book's depictions of the historical figures, and the parallels it made between golf and life, it did get me thinking about another thing.

Suppose I were in the same situation. Who would I want to play golf against, given the chance? Here's my list. The numbers correspond only to people. They are not indicative of hole numbering. It should also be noted that no one on the list is still living. I will amend the list as the situation demands.

1. St. Paul
2. Johnny Cash
3. Humphrey Bogart
4. Albert Einstein
5. Richard Wright
6. Cole Porter
7. Benjamin Franklin
8. Langston Hughes
9. Martin Luther
10. Katherine Hepburn
11. Kate Chopin
12. Curly Howard
13. Henri Nouwen
14. Rod Serling
15. Martin Luther King, Jr.
16. Fred Rogers
17. Basil Rathbone
18. Charles M. Schulz

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