Pebble Water 23.5

In this episode of "A Pane In The Glass Podcast" I briefly talk about "frustrations" and "distractions" and then introduce the episodes for the remainder of the summer months. It's another narrated story by the same author who wrote "The Search For Delicious" (S5E5) Natalie Babbitt. This summer time story is "Tuck Everlasting" which poses the question: if you had the opportunity to live forever, would you? The answer may not be as obvious as you might think. In this episode I will begin the story with the Prologue with can be found at the 1415 mark in "Chapters". Enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:42

The title might be a little target up to you. I'm entitling this double water 23.5. Well, we just finished double water 23, but what's a point five, Bill? Well, I'm not exactly sure how this one fits in, and I'll explain that in just a moment. Now that we're into the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, I have been announcing that there will be a special summertime gift to uh regular listeners of the podcast, as well as their uh children or grandchildren, because I am going to narrate another novel. And again, I will explain that uh a little bit later. But first of all, during the Stanley Cup final, one of the and I wish I could remember which former player said this, but the comment that was made, and it has really stuck with me, because it's something that we feel uh regularly, whether you're in the world of sports or regular walks of life, and he said, frustration is a wasted emotion. I'm gonna repeat that. Frustration is a wasted emotion. And that really got me thinking, okay, it's a wasted emotion. You know, I think I get that, that it's not very productive, it's kind of a response to a situation, obviously not very positive, but a wasted emotion. Maybe it's not something that you should dwell on. Well, then something happened in the world of golf, and it happened at the US Open in Shinnikok, and then just a few weeks later, at the Travelers Championship, and the player was the Norwegian. And when Viktor Hoblin first burst onto the scene, I I like him right off the top. I guess for a variety of reasons. Uh, it just seemed like a a wonderful young person. Uh anyway, uh, he missed the cut at the US Open and was very frustrated. And he could have done a lot of things, but I'm going to narrate what he actually did in order to make sure that the frustration was not wasted. So here is that posting on Facebook. And of course, as you know, if it was on Facebook, it must be true. But again, I think that certainly was. So here it is, word for word. Victor Hovlin's response to disappointment says everything about why he's one of the best in the world. He missed the cut at the US Open by a single shot. For most players, that would have meant heading home frustrated. And that's there's that word. Instead, Hovlins stayed at Shinnock. While the tournament continued without him, he reportedly spent eight hours on the practice grounds over the weekend, working on his game instead of dwelling on what had gone wrong. One week later, he was holding the Traveler's Championship Trophy. Success in golf rarely comes from avoiding failure. It comes from how you respond to it. The best players don't let a miscut define them. They use it as feedback. They identify what needs to improve, put in the work, and trust. Ah, another one of my favorite words, that the result will follow. And that's exactly what Hoblin did. His victory wasn't just about making birdies in a playoff, it was the reward for refusing to waste a setback and turning disappointment into motivation. Talent gets you to the top. The willingness to keep working after things go wrong is what keeps you there. That resulted in a red card. Now, those that are not familiar with the rules of football, i.e. soccer, if you are given a red card, it's like a major penalty. Uh during that game, and I think I've got this right, during that game, when the red card is issued, the player to whom it has been issued is removed from play, and the team does not put in a substitute. That team will play one player down for the rest of the contest, but here is the biggest part. In a competition like the World Cup of Soccer, football, you are prohibited from playing in the next game. Now, the game in which the American player received a red card was a victory for the U.S., which went it which meant that it moved on to play Belgium in the next uh round, uh and the knockout round, playoff round, if you wish. And this was the best player on the team. Well, there was many video replays, and I was in the camp that wow, that was pretty severe. Certainly a yellow card would have been appropriate. And of course, if you get two yellow cards in a game, that amounts to a red card. But the referee decided differently, and video review upheld it that it was a red card. And so this was going to put the U.S. in a disadvantageous position going into the next game against Belgium, which occurred last night. Well, um President Trump decided to weigh in and contacted the committee, the uh FIFA, which runs the World Cup, to have it reviewed. And guess what? The committee decided, uh and there is one precedent to this, or for this, I should say, and it occurred back in 1962, where a red card was suspended. Well, that's exactly what FIFA decided, and so the uh the player in question, arguably, as I said, the best player on the team, was allowed to play in the game. Well, the result of the game wasn't so great because Belgium won uh 4-0. And what the president did, in my opinion, was handed Belgium a great gift in terms of a huge distraction to the American team. Not a very wise thing to do. I would have hoped that there might have been uh at least somebody around uh President Trump who would have the sport sense to go to him and explain that it would be a distraction. It wasn't going to be helpful, it would be a distraction, but I guess that never occurred. So again, in my opinion, we see how the big killer of performance is distractions, and that something that is in one's control can reduce them. And if you do the opposite, well, the results are not always positive. And now for the announcement that I have been uh many months uh waiting to share with you, and there are some precedents here. Um in season number one, episode 44, it was back on October the 3rd of 2022, a very dear friend, uh colleague, uh curling instructor, and author wrote a book and she entitled it He Sweeps, He Scores. And the author was Gene Blackie of Gander, Newfoundland, and Labrador. And as you can tell by the title, it's about a, in this case, a boy who was involved with hockey and then discovered curling. And in in a very interesting fashion, it's a wonderfully written book. I I got permission from the author uh to uh read it as an episode of the podcast, and it was very well received. Well, I decided to try it again uh a number of years later, okay, on March the 14th, I published a book by one of my favorite authors for young readers, and the story was entitled The Search for Delicious. And some of you who have come on board with the the uh podcast of relatively recently might have remembered The Search for Delicious and shared it with uh young readers or listeners in this case in your life, whether it be children or grandchildren. Well, coming up to the summer holidays again in North America, I decided on another story by again my favorite author for young people, Natalie Babbitt. And this one is entitled Tuck Everlasting. Now, I think if there are grandparents or parents listening here, I want to be very upfront. Uh, it's not for younger readers, because the premise of the story is a question. And I think you'll understand why I want to make this very clear with you, because I don't want it to be upsetting to a younger reader, so I'll let you, the parent or the grandparent, decide. I read this uh to my grade six students and uh for a number of years uh with very positive reaction. But the question is, would you like to live forever? There's a bit of a catch in all of this because the premise of the story, Tuck Everlasting, is that if you chose to live forever, uh you would stop at whatever age you happen to be. The protagonist in the story is Winnie Foster, and uh she was uh a young teenager and was forced to, well, not forced to make that decision, but that decision was uh available to her. And I'm not gonna bury the lead. Uh I wonder what Winnie Foster would have said, and what any one of us thinking about this, you know, do we really want to live forever, if when we made the decision, we were going to remain for the rest of our life at that particular age. And of course, if a young person made the decision, it meant that all of the events and experiences that the young person would have gone through as an adult and as a senior uh would not be available. It's a great story, it's extremely well written. And so what I've decided to do for the rest of the summer is uh uh uh narrate this book, and I'm gonna start today with the prologue, and then each episode will be uh two or three chapters of the story, and we'll finish it up uh at the end of uh August, early September, when we're ready to uh hit the ice uh for the curling season of 2026-2027. So again, the story is Tuck Everlasting. It was a movie, uh, and as I said, it was very popular and very well received.

Prologue to "Tuck Everlasting"

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Here then is that prologue. The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn. But the first week of August is motionless and hot. It is curiously silent as well, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days. The dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after. One day, at that time, not so very long ago, three things happened, and at first, there appeared to be no connection among them. At dawn, May Tuck set out on her horse for the wood at the edge of the village of Tregap. She was going there as she did once every ten years to meet her two sons, Miles and Jesse. At noontime, Winnie Foster, whose family owned the Tregap Wood, lost her patience at last and decided to think about running away. And at sunset, a stranger appeared at the Foster's gate. He was looking for someone, but he didn't say who. Well, no connection, you would agree, but things can come together in very strange ways. The wood was at the center, the hub of the wheel. All wheels must have a hub. A Ferris wheel has one, as the sun is the hub of the wheeling calendar. Fixed points they are, and best left undisturbed, for without them nothing holds together. But sometimes people find this out much too late. Okay, so there you go. There's the prologue, and as you can tell, it's a bit of a mystery, and I hope that you will um send this part of the uh narration, the prologue, to someone uh in your life, uh a young person, I would say in a uh pre-adolescent stage, and uh that will keep them interested for the next chapters as the summer progresses. So until next time, uh, wherever you are, of course, stay safe, and always remember those wise words of that great North American philosopher Charlie Brown. Don't focus too much on things that make you sad because there are so many things that can make you happy. Until next time, for the first chapters of Tuck Everlasting.