Steve Garrett reflects on the wonders of The Game.
___
That impossibly high spinning ball,
a boot-powered upward swoop
propelled with passion into the whitening sky,
lifts my heart with its impudent disdain
for earth’s selfish need to draw everything to her.
◊♦◊
Yet, despite all the skill and concentration
applied to that leather egg,
the innate unpredictability of its ovoid shape
ensures that, on returning to kiss the ground,
it’s the luck of the bounce which decides
which way the ball
and the game
goes.
◊♦◊
Like the chance encounters of sperm and egg
which created all our beginnings,
life’s inherent randomness invites us
to give up all illusions of control,
and accept what comes our way
with grace and celebration.
◊♦◊
The game of rugby,
held so close to our Welsh hearts,
teaches us this wisdom well.
◊♦◊
Photo by Mathew Ingram