Bowling and The Small Miracle

And so it happened again...

We had another bowling game recently. I was not excited about the game as always. Why should I be?
For this game, the team has been determined beforehand. And my team leader happened to be the same guy who I recruited for my first game, and really he had this stoic look on his face when he found out that I was now in his team. Well, talk about affinity...not.

So the game started. My team learned the hard way the meaning of motoric moron. My bowling amazed them. Never had they seen a person so capable of sending all the balls to the gutter and my control of ball was so amazing. My ball would move ever so slowly, that all my audience would hold their breath in suspense of anticipation of how many pins that the ball would hit, if the ball would hit at all. My playing was so bad that every time my ball hit on the pins, even when it was only a pin, they would cheer me as if I had hit a strike.

I was so frustrated, especially since the rest of the girls would come and check on my score. Their motto "As long as we beat her, we are doing all right" only made me feel worse. I sat down, and made a small prayer one after another, "Lord, in the next turn, let my ball not go to the gutter!" "Dear God, don't let me be the last one in this game, please!" "God, please let me do a strike, just once, just once, that's all I am asking for!"

I took the ball, believing that God has answered my prayer, and bowled it over to hit the pin. The ball moved so slowly..like a slow motion, and went straight to the gutter.
My prayers were not answered!

With each passing game, I felt worse and worse! Here I was, successfully sending all the balls to the gutter..almost. But, even when the fortunate occasion that my balls hit the ball, they just hit at most three or four pins! Not enough for me not to be in the bottom of the score list. Was it a wonder if I felt bad? I hate sports for a reason, all kind of sports. These activities were made to torture people like me. They were evil. EVIL!!!!
At the end of game 1, I ended up with 37 points, I was...again, the reigning queen of lowest scorer in bowling history ever.

Then something happened...


Game two started. I went on with a heavy heart. And in my frustration, I asked one of my team to play for my turn which he refused to do. He said, "It's okay, winning isn't everything. We're just here to have fun!" Were we, really? He then gave me an advice, "Look at the markings in the lane and just aim on the markings!"
His words opened my eye. I always looked at the pins as my goals, but I did not care about the markings. I did not know that they were there. But, the markings were just drawn up at the middle of the lane, they were easier to be aimed at!

I took my ball, did my pose (honestly, I did not know why I should pose, other people did it, and they looked cool, so I did it too), and bawled, but this time, not aimed to the pins. This time, I aimed at the markings! The balls moved ever so slowly like usual, so not powerful, what's new? Only this time, it went in the middle, and instead of moving to the gutter, it stayed on in the middle and hit on the pins, some of the pins! My team cheered, my audience high-fived me, I smiled. It was a good beginning.
"Lord, in the next turn, let my ball not go to the gutter!" Checked!


Come the next turn, I used the same strategy, I did not care about the pins. They were too far to be aimed at. I just looked at the middle markings, and sent my ball against the marking. Again, my ball slowly stayed on the lane and hit the pins, leaving one pin behind at the outer left side, oh wait..there was another pin lying horizontally next to the pin, still in the visible display of the pins! But, I was happy enough. As long as I could collect the points. I did my second effort, aimed at the left marking this time, did not expect to hit on the one remaining as it was too much on the left. My ball stayed on the left lane, not moving to the gutter. And in a slow motion, hit on-- not to the standing pin-- the other pin that laid horizontally, and this pin hit on the standing pin, the one that I should target. For the first time in my life cleared all the pins! I turned back, with a smile on my face. I cleared all the pins!

But wait, that's not all! All the people (who were my audience) had this puzzled look on their face as they were looking at the screen. One of them said, "But, it's a strike!" I looked back up to the screen. There, next to my name was an X, a strike. A strike for me! Not a real strike, but a strike nonetheless. The system failed to detect my first ball, but detected my second ball, after it hit the 2 pins left, and granted me a strike!
I sat down, too amused with what happened! God sure had a good sense of humor! I asked for a strike, not this kind of strike, but hey, the system recorded my effort as a strike!
"God, please let me do a strike, just once, just once, that's all I am asking for!" Checked!
A miracle has happened.

If you think that I stayed out of a gutter, that would be too much to ask for, wouldn't it? But, I had my strike and for that I was so grateful.
In every of my turn, I just aimed at the middle markings. In one turn, my ball, was still very slow, but stayed on in the middle because of the speed, slowly hit the pins..oh hold on, hit all the pins. Strike! I did my strike! A real strike! My prayer was answered!
"God, please let me do a strike, just once, just once, that's all I am asking for!" Double checked!

In the end, I did 3 strikes altogether in the second game! I collected 100 points, and I was so happy! Very very happy. But not everyone was happy. One of the managers came upto me, checking on my points, and he was so disappointed upon learning that I scored 100 points and did 3 strikes in a game. I guess he placed a bet that I would be the lowest scorer for female category and he lost the bet. Next time he should check with Paul the Octopus!

So I earned the total of 137 points, which would not get me from the bottom list, since I only got 37 points from my first game. I might still be the lowest scorer in the game. But I did not care anymore. I had my moments of glory, and my prayers were answered. So what if I remained in the bottom of the points?

But..hold on...

After the points were tabulated, we went through the award giving ceremony as usual. The first category...lowest scorer in the game, female category. I took the deep breath..ready to get my award. The manager read on, "The award went to.....Sarah!" I was like...hey..someone had lower score than me, I was not the last one in the whole game! I won by 3 points, very very close shave. Sarah collected 40 points and 94  points in game 1 and 2 respectively.
But Sarah should not feel dejected, because the winner from the male category, won over her, with the total of 17 points for both games! He even beat my record!
"Dear God, don't let me be the last one in this game, please!" Checked!

And wait...


I won another category, The Most Improved Player - female category, and I got a very very small miniature tractor model as a prize. The prize, the award, the name calling did not matter anymore. I learned the most important lesson of all from that game. Things that I knew but did not believe. Lesson about God and Miracle, from just a playful bowling game. That God's time might not be our time. That God has good sense of humor. That in bowling, just like everything in life,  aim for short term, don't worry about the long term, as long as you know what you want to get, and the path is right, the invisible hand will do the rest.  And most importantly, God listens..He really does!

I gladly passed that prize to Big N, saying that's for his last math test, where he scored full marks. He smiled and happily played with the model.

Yes, it has been a long write up. But, isn't this experience really worth blogging for?

End note:
*I am still wondering why God answered my prayer only in game 2?Maybe He just did not want me to settle for mediocrity in that bowling game, but what's wrong with being mediocre? I am proud to be one when it comes to sports. Or...He just wanted me to pass the prize to Big N for scoring full marks in his math test. Yes, that must be it!
** I still have not changed my mind about sports in general and bowling in particular. Hated them to the bone! 


“Winning isn't everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.” - Paul Bryant-

Bowling and The Small Miracle - The Beginning

If I have to stand up to give out testimony about miracle, this is what I want to talk about, small miracle in my simple life. Things that will bring out a smile and  lovely memories that I will remember for years to come. Small as they are, miracle is still a miracle and I am glad to be able to recount this story.

Long long time ago...

I was born to be a motoric moron. I had no talent whatsoever in sports and exercise. And this defect of mine has scarred me for life, as I became the object of bullying by my Physical Education teacher  in my school days.

You name every kind of sports that exist, and I sure could not do it. Basketball, volleyball, kasti, even 'bola bekel' just to name a few. In my junior high school, I was made to do the (basketball) lay-up shot many times, I just could not do it right. The memory still lingers until now, it's left (foot), right, left while shooting. But, I just could not do control my feet when I was running. Come on, you were running and you had to remember which one was your left foot and which one was your right foot, and control it just to shoot a ball? How stupid was that? And the stupid PE Teacher (sorry, but really, no appreciation for this kind of brainless teacher), made me and some other moronic girls do it over and over again, as if our life would depend on our ability to do lay-up shot.

I mean, sports and exercise, are done to make a person happier and healthier, right? It is supposed to create the sportsman out of a person, so that a person can learn to lose graciously. But what if that person just loses every time? Every single time? I mean, out of 10 lay up shot that I did was deemed wrong, even though the balls went straight to the basket. Wasn't that the point, to score the point by shooting the balls to the basket? I don't think the TV viewers will bother whether those NBA players moved their feet correctly while shooting the balls? But, no, my brainless teacher still gave me 0/10, because I did not do my left, right, left foot correctly!

And it happened over and over again, in every PE lesson. I was made such a total loser! And I just hated that feeling. So, I grew up  hating every kind of exercise and every kind of sports. (Yes, I am also lazy, but that is beside the point). I hate every sports on TV (sports are to be done, not watched),  I never supports anyone to become athlete (athletes have no brain, no brain).  I dared not join any basketball games, or volleyball games, as I refused to be the person who brought out the downfall of the team. I hate the feeling of being the loser.

And life passed on....

I got a job, I got married, I had my children, life has been good to me.
But, something happened. The department that I was in, decided to do bowling for the team building activity. And, by now, you should understand, with my predicament with all the things motoric, I was not particularly excited about the bowling thing.

With the ratio of 1:6 for woman: man in my company, all the ladies were tasked to form a team and find their own teammates. I went around my department, recruiting the guys! The conversation would be something like this:
Me: Hi, do you want to join my team? But I have to tell you, I am a very bad bowler, really really bad!
Guy 1: Oh, that's all right, I am also not a good bowler. We will do all right (he's in)
or
Guy 2: Well, I did bowling like more than 10 years ago, if you want to accept an old man who has not bowled for the last 10 years, I'll join your team (he's in)
or
Guy 3: Yes..I do play, but not too well I should say (he's in).

So, with a team of not so good players with different nationalities (two Australians, one Korean and one Chinese Canadian, and a lovely Indonesian lady as a team leader), I thought I would do all right. We would have fun losing out the game together! Never would I thought that these guys were bunch of liars. And these guys would never thought that I was being honest to them when I told them that I was such a bad bowler.

The guys that I recruited turned out to be such excellent bowlers. The old man who did not bowled for the last 10 years, was the bowling champion 10 years ago. The others were good bowlers too. My other members were not too pleased with my performance. But they could not voice it out in the name of team-work. Whenever I bowled, the ball would either go to the gutter or if it did not, then it will be moving very very slow, just like the slow motion that you see in drama, and would hit at most 2 pins. Most of the time, though, it would just go to the gutter.

The result of this game was as expected. We did not win the game, but the old man got the highest score for individual. In fact, our team still managed to get the second or third highest score and would do better if not for the low score contributed by me.
As for me, I resigned to the fact that I got "the bowler of the year" award. No guessing on what the award meant. My team members should be happy because 2 of its team members won a prize.

However, things were not that bad for me, as the award came with a prize: $50 shopping voucher. That was not quite good, considering the winner got $100 voucher. At least  I beat those that are average, and my tight competitor (second lowest scorer) looked at me, green with envy!

Morale of the story:
Either you are the first or you are the last, but never ever be an average, because mediocrity is not rewarded


(to be continued)

Picture can be found in google, and is not used for any financial gain whatsoever.

A thought about the big D

"Again?" that's what my maid said when I told her that I might come home late that day, as I needed to to for a funeral wake for a colleague's father-in-law. That's the second one in two weeks time. Yes, again! DEATH is part of life that is inevitable.

It's always so depressing to go for a funeral wake. We may not know the person, but we do feel for the family and relative left behind. And, like a routine, there will be talk on how it happens, and for the people who die because of certain illness, there will be talk about how the illness change the family life. Of course, there's always exceptional case, like my friend's grandmother who passed away peacefully in the age of 100, died in her sleep. But the last funeral that I attended, a 73-year-old who passed away because of lung cancer, was one of sad story. The cancer spread to the brain, the family did what they could, they sent him for radiotherapy, and that's after 1 year history of chemo. Part of his head was all black and burnt, but the saddest part of all, he suffered from memory loss. Not being able to remember the family, his reasons to staying alive. All of us kept quiet while we listened to my colleague telling us about the deceased last days, eerily quiet.

It got me thinking. How difficult it is to die with dignity. When we are sick, we automatically turn into a different person. We show the meanest, darkest side of us to the people around us, ironically, the people we love most. It is a trying time to the person and the family. We pity the patient. On the other hand, look at the family. Look at the spouse, the parents, the children, the siblings. The sickness changes their life terribly. Gone are the days when they can laugh freely without feeling guilty. What is left is just the feeling of helplessness as they watch their loved ones fade away. And sometimes, the big D seems like the great escape. How sad! How very sad.

Then again, I heard another sad story, of a colleague (that I never know of), passed away after he did his jogging. He was only 38 and is a father of 4. It happened so suddenly, so unexpected. He still had his half packet of peanuts on his office table. Who would have thought?

As someone commented to me later, "Life is just too short, too precious! So, don't go on diet, and enjoy the last piece of the cheesecake!"

Ok, maybe just enjoy half of it so that you can live longer