Sunday Scribblings : Good . Satisfyingly Good .
The 1st time I understood what the word good means is outside the home or school . Let me clarify that . I fullly understood the meaning of the word . It was in an athletic competition . We were practicing for a high school basketball tournament . I was in my first year then , so you can say I was a neophyte . I like that word rather than rookie or newcomer . There's a lot more fight in neophyte . Surely a lot was needed then Our new coach , Mr. Martin , was the ultimate disciplinarian . My gosh , we were playing for fun but he made us do drills as if we were in the NCAA Final Four . The guy was really stingy in his praises too. As if any positive word that comes out of his mouth was worth millions ! You really have to earn it . This ' marines in training ' conditions continued for us for more than a month until our first game . ' Boys , you are not worth the uniforms that you are wearing ' he said in his usual put down manner ' But play anyway, and we'll see what happens ' . This guy was really anti Dale Carnagie , I said to myself . What do you know . In our initial game that summer , we walloped our opponents by a wide margin . The suceeding games were ' walks in the park too '. We won the trophy and only then we heard Coach Martin say something nice about our performance . ' You played good , boys ! ' That's it , but it sure was satisfying .
good story , nike . are you trumatized by this experience ?hope not .
Posted by Anonymous | 6:38 PM
i usually say 'fair' & my friends know i meant 'good'. when i say 'good' its usually excellent. am i stingy :p
Posted by b o o | 10:23 PM
ooking forward to reading more of your Sunday scribblings! (on Mondays- Sundays are data-free for me)
Posted by ren powell | 3:08 AM
I like those kind of compliments the best! Compliments that are rare and hard earnt!
Really well written by the way!
-Amy
Posted by Lidia | 6:48 AM
I love this story! I guess the coach knew what he was doing. It's amazing how some people have such a big impact on our lives and we remember them forever.
Oh and thanks for the link!
Posted by Lisa Johnson | 10:50 AM
a good moment indeed -
kindness and recognitions is
wonderful:)
Posted by sophie | 5:05 PM
boo - hmmmm. stingy in love too ?
angel - i immortalized the word in fact !
ren.kat - looking forward to readibg your excellent posts like today .
amy - thanks . u r very kind , amy . i'm glad u enjoyed it !
anali - yes . there are peeps who stay w/ us till we die .
i like reading the blog from a lawyer and a democratic supporter ?
sophie - precious moment . i really like the new pic ( 2x )!
Posted by che | 8:34 PM
I'm a big basketball fan, and I love the word "neophyte" :-)
He sounds like the typical coach, however.
I guess they think they will spoil you or make you lazy with too many praises.
I know his "good" was food for your soul that day.
Posted by Kayla | 1:22 PM
Great story Nike. That must have felt extremely satisfying, and there's definitely a lesson in there somewhere...
Posted by Natalie | 1:26 PM
kayla - yahoo . a fellow b'ball fan . my other blog is abt. b'ball .
you're right - good is food . sounds right too !
natalie - extemely satisfying indeed .
the 'lesson' is don't be satisfied with good . be better then betterer !
Posted by che | 6:57 PM