Making Memories Of Us

A year ago, I was about to head to The Masters golf tournament. It is called a Tradition Unlike Any Other. Having been to the course, this is easy to see. I got to walk a beautiful golf course, be within feet of the greatest golfers in the world, and I got all the food I could stuff in my little belly (OK, big belly) for free.

It was a wonderful experience. I still can't forget the feeling when I held that ticket in my hand, which read "value: $15,000." That was amazing to me until I read a little further where it said that if they heard my cell phone go off (or the flash of my camera) at an inopportune time, I could be fined as much as $60,000.

Needless to say those amounts are both very large sums of money to me, so I was very careful and didn't even take my phone with me. That meant I couldn't text my friend when I was in front of a camera and I couldn't take pictures of it. This makes it hard for anyone to really believe I saw the vastness and beauty of the course at Augusta.

This is a tremendous time in sports with the NCAA Final Four, Baseball's Opening Day, and The Masters all in the same week. Not to mention that NASCAR is rounding into form and the NBA and NHL Seasons are starting to have teams make that playoff push. One thing I tend to notice is that most of the fans at these big events are slapping someone else's hand or talking with someone else.

Life, clearly, is better with friends. I have all these memories about this event from last year, but everyone I speak to is hearing about it second hand. One of my best friends is a man who over the years I have gotten to know by spending time with him at Bible Quiz events. Unfortunately, due to a variety of things, he can not join me this year, so one of my favorite weeks of the year is a little less sweet.

So, as I begin to think about the last year, no experience could reach the individual euphoria of attending the Masters (for free), but there are at least four or five nondescript moments that will trump it in my memory bank, because of the fact that I did them with friends and family. My wife has challenged me for some time to become better at planning. I am starting to accept that challenge, but I realize that I want my plans to be for or with someone.

It's easy to go and do something by yourself, but as I heard it said many years ago. If you think of the lowest moments of your life, you are almost always alone, and if you think of the best moments of your life, you are almost always with someone. We were not created to be hermit-like, and I will attempt to be better. I want to find fun things to remember and the people to remember them with!