Golf on the Radio

Over the weekend, I came across a short video clip online that you could argue has nothing to do with us. But if you live here, I think you'll agree it has everything to do with who we are and who we are struggling to be. 

The next time you're online, go here to watch it yourself. It takes a little under three minutes to view and I'll warn you in advance you won't learn a thing about automotive mechanics but you will learn a lot about never giving up.

In the meantime, I'll attempt to describe it to you and concede I am trying to do what a dear friend once called 'listening to golf on the radio.' So, hand me that three wood and don't be surprised if I decide to lay up and hit short to avoid trouble.  

A small group of men finds two thoroughly abandoned cars in some heavy underbrush I have no idea where. Both cars are in terrible condition but they have no time to mourn or feel bad about that. They have someplace to be and one of these two cars will have to get them there.

The car they choose is the lesser of the two wrecks I guess you could say but is still in pretty awful shape. It has no battery for the starter but someone rummages around until they find one with some charge among a pile of discards.

While under the hood, they realize they have no oil cap for the crankcase but they do have a doll's head that will fit in the hole. When one wonders 'what will people say if they see that?' the answer is "who cares? it'll stop the oil coming out."

Inside, there's no driver's seat but they have found a child's stroller they tie down behind the steering wheel and move right along when they realize both the radiator and the gas tank are bone dry. They fill the radiator with water from their jerry-can, sacrificing their drinking water and discover the other car has gas in the tank, so they use an ax (!) to nick the tank's corner, making a hole and slowly, almost a drop at a time, collect the fuel and transfer it to their car.

Working together, they find and mount tires on the wheels. Throughout the entire video NOT one word of doubt or discouragement is heard.

"Dino" hits the starter and when the engine turns over and the vehicles lurches forward through the bush one of them yells, "Hey boys! We got a car!" The driver adjusts the fuel gauge to read full and sets the disconnected speedometer to 200 kilometers an hour. And off they roar down the highway headed towards their happy ending. 

None of what they did by itself should have worked but because each part did, the car rolled on down the highway. Sometimes we spend more time wrangling about who’s driving than we do about where we’re going. Maybe we should change our thinking.

-bill kenny