A Walking Bocce Ball Game?

People come to the park to do many different things. Just in the area I can view from my bench I see people walking their dogs, jogging, playing baseball, kids playing, three guys practicing rock climbing moves, and a walking game of Bocce Ball. That's right Bocce Ball. The only reason I know what they were doing is I asked them as the game progressed by my bench.

Three of them were playing, two guys and a girl. They first throw the smaller ball or "pallina," and then throw eight larger balls called "boccia," trying to get them as close to the "palina" as possible. The players with the closest "boccia" to the "palina" scores. The game is usually played on a court and not across a park, but they were having fun while getting some exercise.

It made me realize that fun is one of the great motive powers of human behavior. The ability of all of us to do something that is good for us and do it on a regular basis has a lot to do with the "fun factor."

I suppose we should all be intrinsically motivated to do what's good for us no matter what the fun factor might be. Yet, as I view things from my bench all around me people have discovered not only what's good for them but also fun ways to do it.

Tim

It's the Thought That Does Not Count

When I take my early morning walk I can't help but think of our overly Homeowners Association controlled neighborhood. You see we are not allowed to park our cars on the street overnight.

Somehow the Association Board decided the streets look better empty of any cars from 11:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. So if you want to see a street without cars come on by the Ventana Homes in Camarillo any time after 11:00 p.m. Cars left out on the street will be ticketed and the homeowner fined. So we go through this nightly routine of pulling cars into the driveway before 11:00 p.m. One of those cars belongs to my daughter. I pulled her car onto the driveway the other night and when I walked back into the house she came out of her bedroom and declared, "I thought about pulling my car in."

While her "thoughts" may have been in the right direction that did not put her car in the right direction. It's like the guy who at 5:00 a.m. each morning picks up trash along Mission Oaks Blvd. I see him when I'm out for my walk. One morning I asked him why he picks up trash. His response: "Somebody has to do it."

When I got to my bench it made me realize thinking does not make it so. Thinking is not doing. That's why it occurred to me it's the thought that does not count.

Tim

Tree Inner Marriage?

When I walk to my bench I pass by the continuing saga of the marriage of the Liquid Amber and the Pepper tree. For several years now I have watched these two trees literally grow into each other. The two trunks have attached to each other as if to flaunt the strictures of "tree society."

Both trees have kept their "individuality." The Liquid Amber boasts of maple like leaves and spreads it's pointy seed pods everywhere. The Pepper tree's thin light green sliver leaves shine in the Sun and gently fall to earth. Yet these two separate but equal trees have, through the years, physically attached to one another. Two trunks meshed together as one and yet so different from each other.

Some might be tempted to say it's a freak of nature. I prefer to think that these two trees stand stronger and longer together than they would apart.

After all, "Two are better than one, when one falls down the other one can lift him up." Or in this case two can hold each other up.

Tim

We Have You Covered

Today I took my regular walk to my park bench. "My bench," is at the halfway point in my walk and sits in the middle of a busy park. I sit and soak up the Sun and do some "people watching."

I watched kids play soccer. Eight and Nine-Year-Olds, dressed in brightly colored uniforms, were trying their best to get that ball in the net. Screaming parents cheered their kids and went crazy when the rare goal was made. The "Avengers" won. When the game ended I noticed something quite remarkable. The parents of both teams created a "human tunnel." Facing each other the parents held their arms up and the team members went under the arms of their families. It was as if they where saying, "no matter what happens we have you covered."

What a great symbol of family support and encouragement.

It's what we all need to know that no matter what happens there is someone that has us covered.

Tim