[FRIAM] Religious Imagination: The Archer

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Steve, 

 

Crumpled as I am, I can still feel what it’s like to hit a top-spin lob with just the right amount of pull.   Have you ever read the tennis scenes in All The Kings Men?  

 

You have a good voice going here.  More chunks, please. 

 

Nick 

 

Nick Thompson

 <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2021 9:20 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Religious Imagination: The Archer

 

Thanks, Nick! A lot to respond to. I will do it in chunks.

 

On Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 4:22 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> > wrote:

  For me, heaven will be, a doubles match on the court in Ipswich, my parents, family and friends cheering from the shade of the grape arbor, and me, bent to the net, with my big brother at the base line behind me, ready to serve.     

 

Very powerful imagery capturing a relationship with an older brother in the tennis partner context. That is a precise moment and feeling to imagine in a coupled relationship. I can appreciate the comfort of that lasting image.

I played tennis from 11a until 11p with lit courts from 4th grade, through middle school summer camps, city leagues and high school varsity until trailing off into colleage intramurals. Frank, as you know, continues to this day. I have a deeper connection to the feeling of hardcourt, composite or clay under my feet through sweat soaked socks and tennish shoes than the barefoot feeling of sand on a beach. 

I can feel you in your antipatory crouch with the trust that your brother''s powerful serve will probably pass close enough to your face to feel the air pressure. You probably just flashed the  secret hand code you two developed to indicate whether you're poaching or not and ready to spring as soon as antipate first raquet contact to ball. It's you and your brother against the other. You've probably developed an ingroup outgroup dynamic by the third game in the match that you can only see the others as assholes and can't stand their faces, their chatter, and even how they fidget spin their racquets..As you crouch, with your brother ready to serve, you're probably staring down the receiver and his partner with a poker face not revealing the plan. And two games later the position will reverse and your older brother will be waiting for your serve.



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20210412/862d8df4/attachment.html>