Winds Of Adversity

Mistakes are an inevitable fact of life.  Success comes from experience, and experience comes from failure.  When things go wrong, when the winds blow against us, that's when we learn.  But first we have to care about the success of what we're doing, and we have to be able to admit we should have done something differently.  The act of learning presupposes the ability to admit that there is something one doesn't fully understand.  For most, the desire to learn outweighs the ego's need to hide from admitting ignorance.  If someone cannot admit failure, there is no impetus to learn.

When people are confronted with "winds of adversity", the way they react says revealing things about their character.  Some people may get angry, some may adopt a hopeful attitude, and some may try to learn from the situation, and adjust their approach.  There are others however, woefully unsuited to their position, hopelessly out of their depth, and unable to learn, who find themselves bombarded daily with the consequences of their failures.  Failures such as, say, doing nothing about American citizens being murdered by barbarians, or riotous morons destroying their own community, surrendering the nation's borders, and doing nothing about, well, much of anything.  His signature reaction to these "ill winds", and the resulting dissonance, is to ignore it, and run away.  Golf is as good a place to hide as any. 

Here are some different things people do when the winds blow against them….
(apologies to William Arthur Ward)

The pessimist complains about it
The optimist expects it to change
The realist adjusts the sails
Obama hits a 2 iron off the tee…little topspin… let it run…