Category Archives: Sports and Exercise

Life lessons from watching sports (golf, hockey, baseball, curling) and from being active (walking, hiking, kayaking).

Six for Artistic Impression

Posted on 29 July 2012 by Isabel Gibson

Life lessons learned by watching the Olympics.   Clicker box in one hand, snack bowl in the other, I lurch stiffly to my feet. This hands-free, grunt-free levitation earns me personal-best marks for both technical and artistic components. Before setting … Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Sports and Exercise | Tagged , | 8 Comments

The Big Fish

Posted on 08 July 2012 by Isabel Gibson

Canadian Shield lakes are cold and fish lurk in their murk. How wonderful, then, that Roosevelt read Francis Bacon and that I watched Magnum PI.   My knee bumps Something Unidentified. Weed? Rock?  Submerged log? Trailing bit of half-rotted rope … Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Sports and Exercise | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Reason We Watch

Posted on 18 September 2011 by Isabel Gibson

They play, apparently, for the love of the game. That seems right — it’s the same reason we watch. Continue reading →

Posted in Feeling Clearly, Sports and Exercise | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Kismet of Golf

Posted on 24 July 2011 by Isabel Gibson

Negative patterns underlie many of the cautionary stories we tell. An inexplicable, random bad choice here or there — how unsatisfying, somehow, compared to a pattern of bad choices that signals a human frailty. Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Sports and Exercise | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Be the Ball

Posted on 03 April 2011 by Isabel Gibson

Game. Hobby. Recreation. Sport. Addiction. Golf is all of these and more. It is enticing, impossible, ridiculous, relaxing, impossible, invigorating, frustrating, impossible. Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Sports and Exercise | Tagged | 1 Comment

Throw the Bloody Rock

Posted on 06 March 2011 by Isabel Gibson

Those of us of a certain age remember — rightly or wrongly — a simpler time when skips called the game and everyone else pretty much did what they were told. Continue reading →

Posted in Sports and Exercise, Thinking Broadly | Tagged | 5 Comments

Unreasonable Passion & Unexceptional Haircuts

Posted on 27 February 2011 by Isabel Gibson

She shoots: she scores four. Not against all reason, but certainly against any reasonable expectation. Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Sports and Exercise | Tagged | 1 Comment

Time Well Wasted

Posted on 21 February 2011 by Isabel Gibson

Someone wins, someone loses: that’s the format, all right. What we remember is how beautifully they played the game. Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Sports and Exercise | Tagged | 10 Comments

The Making of a Hockey Fan

Posted on 11 January 2011 by Isabel Gibson

For more than 50 years I lived happily without hockey.  Now, as I wait anxiously for the Sens to secure a playoff berth and agonize for our junior team, ambushed by the Russian army, it is clear that the national … Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Sports and Exercise | Tagged | 24 Comments