Soggy Balls
As I continued to work on dribbling two tennis balls at once, it began to rain. It was already dark. A warm, inviting glow emanated from the windows of the houses around us. In one corner of the park, lit by nothing more than a streetlight, our ragtag group dribbled tennis balls. Some were dribbling two balls with both hands simultaneously, while others alternated hands. The more advanced folks were working up to dribbling two balls with just the one hand. Success rates varied, but the focus of the group was palpable. The task was challenging enough, made even more so by the inconsistent bounciness of the old tennis balls, cracks in the pavement, the slight downward grade, and the dim shadowy light. Now, as the rain began to fall, no one seemed deterred. The soggy balls were just another variable to add to the puzzle.
Ironically it’s these seemingly pointless activities that fill me with purpose. The pointlessness of this dribbling task is only emphasized by the fact that achievement of the goal (in this case, an arbitrary 100 continuous dribbles) just leads to the next task. This isn’t a circus act to be performed night after night - once you’ve got it you simply move on. No grand expectations of fame or fortune (or in today’s parlance “likes and subscribers”). No delusions of grandeur of any kind. And yet, purpose.
Studies have shown (hehe), that one of the keys to happiness (hehe, sorry!) is having a sense of purpose. And while we may agree with this premise, I’d propose that too many of us unhappily spend a lifetime in a search of a grand purpose, ignoring all the opportunities that surround us every day. You can literally do anything - some random examples I’ve observed recently (not to scale, and not necessarily from my own experience) - clearing an overgrown ivy, having a baby, observing nudibranchs at low tide, learning music, eating nothing but millets, filling a form, starting a blog.
A word of warning though, when people on Whatsapp ask what’s new - you may not have much to say. After all does dribbling soggy balls even count?