Club suits me to a tee
INTERACTING WITH PEOPLE FACE-TO-FACE, SHARING LIFE’S EXPERIENCES AND ENJOYING SOMEBODY ELSE’S COMPANY DOES SOMETHING FOR THE SOUL AND SPIRIT THAT NO COMPUTER OR PHONE SCREEN CAN EVEN COME CLOSE TO
THERE were hundreds of personalities and thousands of opinions. Skills and intellect were varied and professions diverse. Common sense appeared optional at times but passion, fun and friendship were a given. Along with a healthy obsession for the game of golf, I loved everything about it. I joined my first club at the age of 12 and I’ve been a member of one ever since. I’ve walked a million fairways nattering away with all kinds, shapes and abilities, discussing everything from swing techniques and the latest technology to whether Turnbull is a good thing and what happens to tattoos as a body ages and sags. (Yep, there’s a lot of time to fill in with conversation during a round of golf.) I shared the excitement of hitting my first shots in the air with my parents, found a husband on a practice green and shared the joy of bringing a baby into the world with people I had known since I was a child myself. There has been sadness along the way as friends, or I, have moved away and inevitably others who have died. But that’s life, right?
Forget Facebook, being a member of a real club is one of the single most fulfilling things a human being can do.
Interacting with people face-to-face, sharing life’s experiences and enjoying the simple pleasure of somebody else’s company, often for a common reason or goal, does something for the soul and spirit that no computer or phone screen can even come close to. Sure, you come across the odd Wally but even they add something to the rich fabric of a club.
Warts and all, through thick and thin, it takes all types to make a club great.
I had the pleasure of being invited to another great club recently. Northern Rotary’s movers and groovers met in Cairns to discuss the year ahead. They had a couple of days together to discuss busi- ness but, like all great clubs, there was a little socialising mixed in. The glue that binds Rotarians are the projects locally and worldwide that they support.
Scanning the room as they heard from grateful recipients of their fundraising, there was an obvious camaraderie, pride and, as the evening wore on, sense of friendship and purpose.
The spotlight has been on another high-profile club in Cairns this week with the Taipans NBL team showing its true colours in making the semi-finals.
Betting agencies wrote them off (again) at the beginning of the season and, after their woeful start, it looked like they were on the money. The Taipans aren’t the silvertails of the comp and they wear their hearts on their sleeves but their foundations are built on a love of basketball and people willing to work hard to shoot goals.
Just as there is no “i” in team, there are none in clubs and that’s what makes them special.