Days of Petanque: What else?

Date: January 17, 2020 at 7:07:06 PM PST

In my salad days I only had one thing on my mind, and it wasn't salad. These days, to tell the truth what I enjoy most in life is sitting down with someone, and over a cup of tea, or maybe a glass of wine (Grenache of course) if it's after dinner and just talking. The subject is not so important as long as it's honest, without self aggrandizement, or deprecation, but just communicating with another human being about anything at all. Could be about how the day went. Not so much what happened as how it felt. We have such little time it seems a shame to spend it wrapped in a shell of isolation.

Actually one of the things I've come to realize while playing petanque, is that the talking is only one of the ways we communicate. This thing, language, can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, misdirections, and even exacerbate an uncomfortable situation. Like the time an obviously intoxicated man challenged one of our players. Challenging words led to insulting words which led to threatening words. It was only the intervention of law enforcement that cooled things down.

The time we spend together playing petanque, is just that. Time we spend together. Voluntarily, without agenda, or expectation beyond the rules of the game. It's a wonderful thing really. Even a beautiful thing. People from all walks of life, from plumbers to lawyers to fishermen, to CPAs, to interior designers, to film makers, all just hanging out. Tossing a few boules. A little trash talking. And in general being kind to each other. We get the feeling that if it came to it, we could depend on each other to help us fight off a sabertooth tiger or a televanelist, or a wild fire, or just a really shitty day. I'm not saying we are all heroes or Mother Theresas, but we do manage to recognize the humanity we share. And really, what else is there? OK, so there's drugs, sex and rock and roll. But what else?

Anyway I've gotten way off the track. What I intended to write about is the question of why there aren't more women players. The game does not seem intrinsically male oriented. I'm not saying that the women who do play are in any way insufficient for the task of representing their awesome gender. It's just one of the things I wonder about and might talk about if we were sitting down talking over a cup of tea.

Actually the more I think about it, there may be plenty of women players in Sonoma. The real question might be why they don't come to play more often. Maybe they just have better things to do. Or have higher IQs. Or are busy doing the things we guys are neglecting while we keep the world turning, one shot, one point, one beer at a time.

Enough for now. The boss is calling.

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"Think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was that I had such friends."
― William Butler Yeats